Hurley hero of Garryowen victory

GARRYOWEN ended a run of three defeats with victory over an understrength St Mary’s College in Saturday’s AIB All-Ireland Cup at Dooradoyle.

While Garryowen deserved to secure a quarter-final with Blackrock College and derived a confidence boost from defeating the AIL pacesetters, this result must be taken in context. The torrential rain of the past week made for a waterlogged pitch and while both sides tried to spread the ball wide as often as was practicable, spilled passes and errors were the order of the day.

Gerry Hurley, better-known for his exploits as a scrum-half, again wore the number 10 jersey for Garryowen and proved his side’s matchwinner. He landed three penalties in the first half hour against one for St Mary’s by Gavin Dunne and then tapped over the conversion when referee David Keane deemed the visitors had deliberately collapsed a retreating scrum on their own line and awarded a penalty try.