Garbally bridge eight-year gap to deny Summerhill

Garbally College 19 Summerhill College 18

Garbally College ended eight years without a title and held off a stout comeback to deny Summerhill College their first Connacht Senior Cup at the Sportsground.

Simon Keller kicked five from five for the Ballinasloe school, who had lost the last two finals, while Michael O’Neill’s try before half-time also helped Garbally on their way.

Summerhill came very close to upsetting the record 45 time winners of the competition when Cillian Gallagher picked off the back of a scrum to touch down with six minutes remaining but, crucially, Jack Keegan was unable to add the conversion from the touchline.

It had started so well for Summerhill too when secondrow Ciarán Cassidy crashed over in the second minute, which Keegan converted well for a 7-0 lead.

Keller got Garbally off the mark with a seventh minute penalty when Keegan was penalised for not rolling away from the tackle.

The Ballinasloe school slowly began to get a foothold in the game and when O’Neill powered over from close range in the 31st minute, Keller converted to give them the lead.

First penalty

A minute from the interval Keegan added his first penalty to level the game, but with the last kick of half Keller slotted a sublime kick from the left touchline to give his side a 13-10 lead.

Keller kicked his third penalty three minutes after the restart, but they were reduced to 14 men soon after when Andrew Foulger was penalised.

Chipped away

Keegan chipped away at that lead and their quest was aided when Daniel Dent was also sin binned seconds after Garbally had been returned to their full complement.

Ten minutes from time Keller struck a significant blow when he landed a long-range kick when Alexander Selby was harshly penalised for holding on in the tackle.

Gallagher's try in the 64th minute gave Summerhill a chance, but Keegan's conversion drifted narrowly wide, and Noel Cotton's late tackle on Selby saved Garbally.

GARBALLY COLLEGE: I Fletcher; C Payne, P Flannery, S Keller, N Cotton; D Reilly, F Hopkins; N Higgins, R Khan, C Kenny; D Dent, A Foulger; C Harewood, M O'Neill, D Connolly. Replacements: R Hines for Foulger (50 mins), O Lyons for Connolly (54 mins).
SUMMERHILL COLLEGE: A Selby; S Flanagan, R Hickey, D Cummins, A Cummins; J Keegan, N Murray; H Mousa, D Hough, M Keegan; C Cassidy, L Morrison, S O'Hehir, L McElhinney, C Gallagher. Replacements: Y Shalabi for Hough (35 mins).
Referee: Jason Cairns (CBIRFU).