St Michael’s avoid upset despite red card

St Michael’s College 25 St Andrew’s College 7

Andy Skehan's St Michael's survived an early red card for their loose forward Oisin Dowling to make it through to the Bank of Ireland Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final at Donnybrook on Tuesday.

The incident was also noteworthy for the yellow shown to St Andrew’s centre Peter Sullivan for a skirmish on the touchline in the 18th minute.

At that stage, there had been no breakthrough score for either school and St Andrew’s apparent confidence must have been upgraded to belief they could cause a shock.

Instead, St Michael’s gradually found their continuity to produce two fine tries.

First, fullback Jack Kelly used a stiff-arm to get over the gain line and then popped up 10 metres out to bamboozle the defence with his footwork for number eight Barry Fitzpatrick to make it 7-0 in the 25th minute.

It looked like the minimum requirement as Sullivan returned to the field to bring St Andrew’s back to fifteen.

It didn’t work out that way.

St Michael’s were making light of the loss of Dowling, especially when outhalf Ian O’Kelly slipped between two defenders to touch down for a 12-point lead at half-time.

The game was effectively put to bed when replacement Harry Byrne picked up a penalty at the end of a period of pressure started by Kelly’s counter.

St Andrew’s hit back when the outstanding Jordan Larmour’s hard line onto the ball was too much for a stretched St Michael’s defence and Peter Sullivan’s conversion made it 15-7 in the 55th minute.

The Booterstown school had to have the next score. But, it came from Harry Byrne’s penalty and Dan O’Donovan then sprinted clear for Byrne to convert in injury-time.

St Michael's: J Kelly (capt); J O'Loughlin, J Hickey, D Ryan, M Heaney; I O'Kelly, T Killeen; R Kelleher, S Judge, S Griffin, R Baird, J Dunne, O Dowling, S Penny, B Fitzpatrick. Replacements: H Byrne for Ryan, P O'Beirne for Killeen both 37 mins; D O'Donovan for O'Loughlin 50 mins; A Courtney for Dunne 53 mins; M Kennedy for Judge, M O'Donahoe for Kelleher, L Duffy for Griffin all 61 mins; M Roche for Heaney 63 mins.

St Andrew's: J McDonagh; D Burns, J Larmour (capt), P Sullivan, S Keane; S Ballance, A Larmour; R O'Flaherty, H McCarthy, D Wilson, B Ryan, W Holland, H O'Byrne-Cullinane, B Nolke, Z Henry. Replacements: D Morris for Ryan 11 mins - temp & for Holland 32 mins; N Judge for McCarthy 57 mins; R Simington for Nolke 62 mins; R Jordan for Burns 63 mins. Referee: B Montayne, Leinster Branch.