Ardscoil into Munster Junior Schools Cup quarters with convincing victory over Glental
ONTO THE QUARTERS: Ardscoil Rís supporters during a recent game at Thomond Park, Limerick. PIC Credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE.
Limerick’s Ardscoil Rís advanced to the last eight of the Munster Junior Schools Cup with a 19-point victory over Glental Abbey in Thomond Park.
Overall, they were comfortable but they did have to weather an early second-half reply from Glenstal, who have now exited but the Senior and Junior competitions. The boys wearing black and red showed great variety in their performance and they have the ability to mix their game when asked.
They had impressive showings from Darragh Leyden, Ollie Desmond and Leo Connolly who helped contribute to all four tries. They rarely looked in trouble of losing this tie against their Limerick rivals.
The opening score came after a good pressure from the North Circular Road side in the sixteenth minute. Leyden, playing number eight, came off the back of the scrum to crash over. The extras were added by James Butler.
Head-coach Conor Glynn, who plays AIL with Shannon, will have liked much of what he saw from his side throughout this contest. They didn’t let Glenstal get into much rhythm and their tackling and turnovers helped provide a platform for victory.
Aaron Kelly stretched the lead with the last act of the opening half - he received a pass on the left wing - from a set piece. The quick movement of the ball from a scrum 10 meters out was too much for Glenstal to handle.
The Limerick City school led 12-0 at half-time. They’d been awarded six penalties, with just three conceded. One of those Glenstal penalties saw the impressive Oisin Rowan kick just inches wide.
The Glenstal reply was quality. They got on the scoreboard on 37 minutes, as Callum Hughes powered over, peeling off the back of a well-executed lineout five meters out. The conversion went inches under the crossbar to leave it 12-5 to those in black.
But Ardscoil kept the pressure on at the other end, James Butler crossed for a try to push the game beyond Glenstal. Again, a peel off the back of a scrum yielded some dividends, with Leyden offloading a pass to out-half Butler who touched down.
Leo Connolly raced home with five minutes remaining, to put the icing on the cake for Ardscoil.
The prize for Ardscoil is a trip to Musgrave Park to face either PBC or Rockwell as they chase a third ever Junior Cup and a first since 2005.
: F Sheehan Williams; C Ryan, L Connolly, A Kelly, D O’Connell; J Butler, O Desmond; J Kelly, D Salmon, L Brown, M Collins, L Costello, J Rafferty, B Morriseey, D Leyden.
J Hartigan, J Das, P Oyedeji, C Cantillon, C O’Doherty, A Fennell, D Quirke, L O’Flanagan, J Thorne, J Bannon.
J Kerr; D Goode, S Roche, O Rowan, S Connolly; T Buckley, T Williams; C Smith, D McCarthy, O Hilaire, R O’Neill, W Waller, E White, L O’Connor, C Hughes.
A Fontan Abad, L Gleeson, A O’Loughlin, S McCartan, C Kochhar, D Hogan, P Peters, H McGowan, C Cusack, J O’Riordan.
A McInerney (MAR).
