Sexton hat-trick seals Sacred Heart Clonakilty’s Munster three-in-a-row

Clonakilty scored eight tries in Tuesday's victory against Bantry. The schools will meet against after Easter in the Junior Cup final

GAME-BREAKER: Sacred Heart Clonakilty full-back Clodagh McCarthy showed her pace during the Munster Schools Senior Cup final against Colaiste Pobail Bheanntrai. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon

Munster Schools Girls' Senior Cup final: Sacred Heart Clonakilty 52 Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí 14 

Sacred Heart Clonakilty produced a devastating display of attacking rugby to deliver their third consecutive Munster Schools Senior Cup title against Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí.

Head coach Jack Phelan said beforehand that the Clon school possesses a “very stacked team”. That much became clear across an eight-try victory at Virgin Media Park.

Julie Finn nabbed two early tries in the space of two minutes to set the course of this West Cork derby, which began in wind and rain. It ended in sunshine as replacement Laura Sexton contributed a second-half hat-trick.

Centre Rachel Twomey, with her arm wrapped in a sling, collected the player of the match award before co-captains Leona Arra and Ciara O'Driscoll raised the trophy.

Clonakilty full-back Clodagh McCarthy showed her game-breaking pace with three line breaks inside six minutes. The first of those created the most danger. From a loose ball, she scythed into the 22 only for opposite number Seren Lehane to make the try-saving tackle.

McCarthy was involved again as they grabbed a ninth-minute lead. Rachel Twomey, Ella O’Sullivan, and Julie Cunningham made strong carries before they spread the ball wide through McCarthy and O’Driscoll for Keelin McCarthy to cut in off the right touchline and dot down. Twomey’s conversion was dragged away by the wind.

Sacred Heart had their second in the 13th minute. Their powerful pack claimed a Coláiste Pobail scrum against the head on their own 22. Clodagh and Keelin McCarthy brought them to halfway before Finn put Lani O’Donovan through a gap. When the fly-half was stopped by Lehane, she offloaded for Finn to finish.

Sacred Heart Clonakilty's Julie Finn scored a brace of tries in the final. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon

From the kick-off, the scrum-half had her second try in two minutes. First, Cunningham fended off two defenders to release Quirke. When Lehane made her third vital tackle, Finn was on hand to snipe over. Twomey and O’Donovan converted both tries for a 19-0 advantage.

An O’Donovan line break brought Sacred Heart close again, but Finn was denied her hat-trick as Ciara Kelly held her up over the line.

The Clonakilty school would cross from the goalline drop-out. Quirke gained territory down the left before Roxanne Llewellyn burst over from the ruck. O’Donovan’s conversion missed.

The second-rows took over for try number five. Arra robbed the five-metre line-out and Niamh Hilliard charged through to score. O’Donovan converted for a 31-0 half-time lead.

Sacred Heart began to run their bench from there. Phelan’s assertion that he “could make 10 changes and our team won't be weakened” was demonstrated as they continued to control the territory even as the game lost shape.

Some brilliant offloading rugby brought them close again, but a likely Keelin McCarthy try was called back for a forward pass.

Coláiste Pobail capitalised on that let-off. From a defensive scrum, Alice O’Donovan bravely offloaded to Grace Kingston. The scrum-half, who returned at the interval after a first-half knock, showed her turn of pace to zigzag away down the left for an 85-metre breakaway try. Abbey Connolly added the extras.

Sacred Heart hit straight back. Hilliard secured a turnover, O’Driscoll gained ground, and when they went wide, Quirke offloaded for Sexton to dash over. Twomey drilled the conversion for 38-7.

Coláiste Pobail hit back again after a Muireann McCarthy tap-and-go penalty. They hammered away with Alice O’Donovan offloading for Kelly before O’Donovan immediately went again to score. Connolly converted.

Sexton had her second try, and Clon’s seventh, in the 64th minute. The half-time replacement gave the pass for O’Sullivan before coming on the loop to take the return to cross. Twomey converted for 45-14.

Into stoppage time, Sexton completed her hat-trick after Elva McAuley’s line break. Shona Fleming converted to become their eighth player on the scoresheet.

They almost had a ninth try as Sexton and McAuley combined, but the final pass to Quirke was judged to be forward.

These schools will meet again in the Junior Cup final after Easter with Sacred Heart looking to complete a treble double.

Scorers: Sacred Heart Clonakilty: Tries: K McCarthy, J Finn 2, R Llewellyn, N Hilliard, L Sexton 3; Cons: R Twomey 3, L O’Donovan 2, S Fleming. 

Scorers for Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí: Tries: G Kingston, A O’Donovan; Cons: A Connolly 2.

SACRED HEART CLONAKILTY: C McCarthy (L Sexton h-t); K McCarthy (A Tapia 53), E Quirke (E McAuley 60), R Twomey (E Quirke 69), E O’Sullivan; L O’Donovan (S Fleming h-t), J Finn (S Walsh h-t); S O’Callaghan (M McMahon 46), C O’Driscoll, J Cunningham (C McCabe 46); L Arra, N Hilliard (E Bell 60); K Burton (C Galwey 60), A Millin (Y Asare 53), R Llewellyn.

COLÁISTE POBAIL BHEANNTRAÍ: S Lehane; S O’Shea, C Kelly, A O’Donovan, C O’Regan; A Connolly, G Kingston (A Myler 24) (M Fox 26); L Cronin, M McCarthy, L Barry (A Doody 70+1); C McCarthy (A Coughlan 43), L Donaldson; E O’Connor (A McAuliffe 60), A Doody (K Triggs-Sharkey 53), M Fox (A Coughlan 18) (G Kingston h-t) (A Myler 64).

Referee: D Finn (MAR).