Balanced Christians in control against Ardscoil
The better balanced CBC outfit had too much in reserve for the Limerick outfit. They struck first with a penalty from out-half Cian Whooley but were pegged back quickly when Ardscoil flanker James Hourigan equalised, both in the opening six minutes.
It took a further 18 minutes to yield the second score of the game and again it went to Christians, speedy left winger Aaron Leahy breaking through the final tackle after being sent clear by prop Alex O’Regan on the narrow side for an unconverted try. Wholley missed the difficult conversion but stretched the half-time advantage to 11-3 with an injury-time penalty.
Christians missed two early second-half penalties, and Ardscoil raced away for an unexpected 42nd minute try from centre Killian Dineen to close the gap to 11-8. But CBC hit back quickly and, seconds after butchering a scoring chance out wide, they took advantage of a defensive mistake, centre Leo Daly pouncing for a try George Coomber converted to push their lead out to 18-8, 13 minutes from the end.
That lead was enhanced further when Conor Lavin got another try on 57 minutes after replacement scrum-half James Moylan had been held up short and Robbie Shalloe rounded off an impressive performance when he ran in for the fourth try in injury time, this one converted by Whooley.
G Coomber, M Buckley, H O’Riordan (captain), L Daly, A Leahy, C Whooley, M O’Connor, A O’Regan, S Rall, M Donnelly, R Kelleher, M McCarthy, F MacFhlannchadha, R O’Sullivan, C Lavin.
R Horgan, D Shanahan, B O’Donnell, P McBarron, B Kahn, A Cremin, J Moylan, J Ryan, R Shalloe, L Murphy.
A O’Halloran, S Fitzgerald, K Dineen, G Hanrahan, L O’Keeffe, J Moloney, I Leonard, A Long, D Dineeen, K Danaher, W O’Callaghan (captain), C O’Reilly, J Hourigan, J Ward-Murphy, D Okeke.
A Nihill-Daly, R McElligott, J Dillon, D Twomey, J Barry, C Moloney, E Collins, G Noonan, A Quigley, D Smith.
C Dona (M.A.R).
