St Munchin's battle past Hamilton High School in Munster Schools Senior Cup

Any nerves that the Bandon side may have had on their first appearance in the knockout stages of the competition weren’t visible as they made a fast start to the lively contest.

Thu, 16 Jan, 2025 - 15:40

John Keogh, Thomond Park

Munster Schools Senior Cup: St Munchin's 29 Hamilton High School, Bandon 17

St Munchin's are into the next round of the Munster Schools Senior Cup following a 29-17 victory over Hamilton High School, Bandon at Thomond Park.

Two Ryan Angley tries and one each from Adam O’Shaughnessy, Gearoid O’Brien, and Darragh Dillon helped the Limerick school to the win.

However, they didn’t have it all their own way with Noah O’Sullivan, Jack McNamara and Louis O’Sullivan touching down for Hamilton in response.

Any nerves that the Bandon side may have had on their first appearance in the knockout stages of the competition weren’t visible as they made a fast start to the lively contest.

McNamara broke off the back of a five-metre scrum on the blindside and offloaded to O’Sullivan, who used every inch of his reach to touch down for the game's opening try.

Munchin's were back on level terms by the 18 minute mark after a knock on by Hamilton in their own ’22.

Three phases after the scrum, Dillon sent the ball right to Angley and he had enough power to score their first of the afternoon.

They took the lead soon after with O’Shaughnessy crossing for their second. The hooker started the move after a well-worked lineout saw him reach the five-metre line.

The ball was recycled and O’Shaughnessy powered over from close range. Oisin Madden nailed the conversion to give Munchins a 12-5 half time lead.

The impressive Angley was on the mark for a second time in the early stages of the second half to increase Munchins’ advantage.

Again, the try came from a lineout with Angley running in from 20 metres after the initial carries from the Munchins forwards.

Munchin's were starting to dominate at this stage and bagged a fourth try on 35 minutes thanks to O’Brien.

He finished off an excellent move that involved Madden, Angley and full back Adam McGlynn in the left corner.

Madden’s successful conversion stretched their lead to 19 points and effectively put the game beyond Hamilton.

However, the Bandon school were far from finished and thundered back into the tie after McNamara scored from a tap penalty five metres from the Munchins line.

That was quickly followed by O’Sullivan’s effort following a sustained period of pressure on the Munchins line.

Daniel Coughlan’s strike from the conversion then made the score 24-17 with six minutes remaining.

Hamilton were pinned back in their own ’22 in the final stages and the result was put beyond doubt when a loose ball was collected by the Munchins scrum-half Dillon, who went in unopposed for the final score of the game.

ST MUNCHIN'S: A McGlynn; D Newman, R Angley, B Minogue, G O’Brien; O Madden, D Dillon; C Kirwan, A O’Shaughnessy, D Geoghegan; J Meaney, A Acton-Quinn; B Carr, P Dowling, C Grace.

Replacements: M Landers, D Colgan, D Fogarty, C Hannon, E Coughlan, A Burke, P O’Driscoll, T Williams, J Arenhold, J Browne.

HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL: D Walsh; S Coffey, C Callinan, S Murphy, J O’Leary; D Coughlan, N O’Sullivan; J Aruste-Desmond, B Galvin, L O’Sullivan; A O’Regan, B O’Regan; E Donegan, J Brennan, J McNamara.

Replacements: O Coughlan, S Galwey, J Aruste-Desmond, G O’Mahony, M Kelliher, F Lotkowski, M Crowley, N Bourke, T O’Riordan, J Buckley.

Referee: J Lillis (MAR).