The St Andrew's College underdogs showed that they had real bite in a helter-skelter Leinster Schools' Senior League final at Donnybrook yesterday when they overcame Gonzaga's initially stylish approach and came back with something a little more doughty. In the first 30 minutes, the Gonzaga inter-provincial half-backs Brian O'Riordan and Brian McCloskey moved the ball around to their forwards' advantage. They had the territorial advantage and McCloskey landed two penalties in the sixth and 18th minutes to put his side into a 6-0 lead.
St Andrew's had been out-played until centre Neal Menzies broke through on the left to cross for what everyone presumed was a try. But referee Dermot O'Mahony disallowed the score as Menzies had been held up over the line. This could have put the blinkers on a lesser team. But Menzies was not going to be stopped a second time as St Andrew's regrouped and moved the ball right to the big centre. Out-half Adam Shehabeddin kicked the conversion to make it 7-6 at the break.
A minute into the second half, scrum-half Arthur Molyneux took advantage of lax Gonzaga defending to go over for an unconverted try. As St Andrew's defended their lead, centre Robert Chadwick was never shy in putting in the big hits around the midfield area. Nonetheless, Gonzaga did force a penalty for McCloskey to narrow the gap. But, that was made redundant by a fine 58th minute kick by Shehabeddin from the left touch-line.
St Andrew's College: J Mackey; S Ryan, N Menzies, R Chadwick, N McWade; A Shehabeddin, A Molyneux; A O'Toole, G Bergin, H O'Hagan, S Gill, A O'Grady, D Crean, J Gill, I Dunbleton. Replacement: P Dunbleton for J GIll (50 mins).
Gonzaga College: R Davy; D Berkery, S McCarron, A Butterly, D Marah; B McCloskey, B O'Riordan;, M Conlon, A Feeney, G D'Alton, P Mohr, J Egan, D Bradley, C Ellis, C Gahan, Replacement: D Stewart for Marah (44 mins).
Referee: D O'Mahony (ARLB).
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