Munster Senior Schools Cup: Late drama sees Bandon over the line
Barry Spearman, Bandon Grammar School, in action against Cole Gavin Castletroy College. Picture: Brendan Gleeson
A dramatic late winner by Bandon Grammar scrum-half Dylan O'Driscoll saw the West Cork side edge past a gritty Castletroy College side in an entertaining tussle in Limerick Wednesday afternoon.
The Cork school gave up a lot of size to a very big Castletroy pack but they more than held their own in the tight physical exchanges and dominated the scrum thanks to some powerful, aggressive work by Mitchell Connolly, Dan McGarvey and Fionn O’Neill.
Castletroy had the bulk of possession and territory in the first half - and throughout, really - but they were consistently unsettled by a physical, impactful Bandon defence who were able to find breakdown turnovers and knock-ons at key points. Both sides found it difficult to get much of a platform off the lineout in the face of difficult throwing conditions and some athletic counter-jumping but Bandon got just enough of an edge here to give them some decent launching points.
Gavin Rowsome and Jeff Williams traded missed penalties in the early stages before Bandon full-back Paddy Gaffney finished off an excellent blindside break from inside his own half under the Castletroy posts. It was an excellently taken try and showcased some excellent close control by the West Cork side.
After the interval, Castletroy really started to squeeze Bandon territorially and, despite a few siege lifting breakdown turnovers, they eventually powered over for an equalising score from close range through the powerful Evan O’Connell.
Bandon crept back into the lead when Williams converted a penalty that he won himself at the breakdown before Rowsome replied with an equaliser on the very next play for a breakdown infringement.
It looked all set up for a draw before Bandon pulled out a magical ending to the game right on the final whistle. With possession on the left edge of the field, they found an offload to put the runner away and then a grubber through. Shane Hathaway chased hard and when the attempted clearance pinballed around, Dylan O’Driscoll was on hand to run the ball over for a dramatic win that left Castletroy floored.
Williams converted the try and put the exclamation on a dramatic, excellent win on the road against a good Castletroy outfit.
S Kiely, P O’Brien May, A Ryan, L Hueston, G Cole, G Rowsome, J Donohue; A Clinton, J Myers, M Hoare, H Hogan, L Walter, O Toland, D Aylward, E O’Connell.
S Lynch, I Sweidan, G Clohessy, P Franklin, H Mohammad Ali, N Clancy, O Williams, R Collins, D Carr, E Lacey.
P Gaffney, S Hathaway, P O’Sullivan, L McCarthy, B Spearman, J Williams, D O’Driscoll; F O’Neill, D McGarvey, M Connolly, S Coughlan, S Nnamani, B Kingston, JC Van Der Westhuizen, A Murphy.
R O’Brien, R O’Callaghan, L Prior, J O’Regan, D Lynch, C O’Sullivan, J O’Brien, R Kingston, Z Canniffe, K O’Regan.
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