Wade earns Clongowes deserved replay

ONE SWING of Ciaran Wade’s right boot, in the last action of a frantic match at Donnybrook, sent this Powerade Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final to a replay.

It was the very least Clongowes deserved for their territorial domination and Wade calmly struck a 40 metre penalty four minutes into injury-time when their powerful maul drew a Rock defender in from the side.

Although Clongowes controlled the tempo of the game, Blackrock’s cutting edge behind their retreating forwards threatened to unhinge them — as occurred when left wing Alan Phlipott knocked on with the line at his mercy in the 17th minute. That was prompted by Lorcan O’Daly’s outside break.

O’Daly gave Rock the lead with a penalty on the half hour. But Clongowes captain Jack O’Connell spun over the line after a maul that travelled 30 metres for Wade to make it 7-3 with the conversion in the 37th minute.

It was O’Daly again who created Rock’s try with a similar surge, carried on by centre Brendan Macken and ending with wing Gavin Greene wheeling around behind the posts for O’Daly to make it 10-7 in the 61st minute. It looked like enough to win until Wade gave Clongowes another day.

Scorers: Blackrock College: G Greene try; L O’Daly, pen, con; Clongowes Wood College: J O’Connell try; C Wade pen, con.

BLACKROCK COLLEGE: A Conway; G Greene, B Macken, C Rhatigan, A Philpott; L O’Daly, A McGinty; A Lyons, P Kilcoyne, S Schuster, K O’Riordan, M Cawley (c), B Kelly, J Murphy, R Hartnett. Replacements: S Lambe for Kilcoyne 47 mins; T Parsons for O’Riordan 51 mins; D Hillery for Lyons 52 mins.

CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE: L Smyth; G Mullen, D Cullen, S Kennedy, N McNamara; C Wade, M McLoughlin; J O’Connell (c), T O’Mahony, M Collis, W M. Courtney, N Delehanty, R Timlin, W Larkin, J Lochran. Replacements: G Hoban for Delehanty 63 mins; A Hoban for Larkin 66 mins.

Referee: K Beggs, IRFU.