Belvedere lay down a marker

Belvedere College 34 Newbridge College 0

Phil Werahiko's Belvedere announced the start of their campaign with a deeply impressive mastery of Newbridge in the Bank of Ireland Leinster Senior Cup first round at Donnybrook on Wednesday.

From minute one, Belvo’ had the manic appearance of a collective - dead set on making up for the heartbreak of last year. Newbridge weren’t short of numbers out for redemption either.

It was the Dubliners who settled the quicker to take territory and dominate the ball until they struck for two tries in two minutes.

The first came following an immaculate build-up combination between fullback Hugh O'Sullivan and wing James McKeown which was denied by a superb tackle by Gavin Burke.

However, Belvedere dropped down a gear to allow their forwards to go to work and hooker Cian Galvin made it over from no more than a yard for centre Conor Jennings to convert in the 13th minute.

They were back for more in the blink of an eye as Jennings’ straight line onto the ball was simply too much to handle.

Newbridge did manage to break out of the vice-like grip to engineer a five-metre lineout from outhalf Tim Murphy’s delicate grubber. It came to nothing.

The intelligence of their number eight Patrick Ryan was evident even though they were breached again by prop Daniel McCaffrey and McKeown to leave the contest as good as over at 26-0 at the break.

A Jennings penalty was improved by McCaffrey’s second try in the 46th minute and it was a credit to Newbridge’s commitment to keep going that the scoring ended there.

Belvedere: H O'Sullivan; J McKeown, C Jennings, H Sexton, P Maher; D Hawkshaw, P Cagney; D McCaffrey, C Galvin, C Walsh, H Fenlon, B Egan (capt), S McNulty, M Kearney, T de Jongh. Replacements: J Iredale for McNulty, J Kenny for Fenlon both 54 mins; F Smith for Maher 56 mins; C Molloy for McCaffrey, J Robinson for Walsh both 57 mins; N Minogue for McKeown 61 mins; S Osborne for Galvin, B Gibbons for Cagney both 64 mins.

Newbridge: G Burke; J Deane, D Murphy, C Doolan, C Stapleton; T Murphy (capt), C Doyle; J Duggan, R Wynne, D Breen, M Joyce, M Dillon, D Walker, T O'Neill, P Ryan. Replacements: B Howlett for O'Neill ht; N Stapleton for Duggan 50 mins; R Hyland for Doyle, T Berney for Doolan, C Prendergast for Dillon all 54 mins; R Cleary for Deane 65 mins; P O'Brien for Walker, M Ryan for Breen both 68 mins.

Referee: J Fitzgerald (Leinster Branch).