St Mary's have to tough it out

LEINSTER SCHOOLS' CUP:St Mary's College 27 Wesley College 16

THE FINAL scoreline is grievously misleading. The outcome was decided in injury-time. A combination of Wesley College centre Richie Jermyn and outhalf Kenneth McLaughlin had been held up over the St Mary’s College line and with the put in to come and trailing 22-16 Wesley were on the cusp of an upset.

For the previous two and a half minutes the Ballinteer school had several times come within centimetres of their opponents’ line, only to be repelled by wonderfully gritty and vigilant fringe defence. Time and again bodies collided with a resounding thud but Wesley couldn’t bridge that square inch of turf until they finally released it to the backs and even then a blue-clad player managed to insinuate himself under the ball carrier.

Still a scrum five, right in the shadow of the posts augured well, until Wesley lost a heel against the head, marking an emphatic redemption for St Mary’s replacement hooker David Callinan who had only just returned from a 10 minute spell in the sin bin following a technical infringement.

St Mary’s escaped to the other end of the pitch and six minutes into injury-time their excellent prop Niall Croke was fittingly rewarded for all the hard yards he’d made during the game with a less arduous five-metre trot, untouched, over the line.

Scrumhalf Simon O’Donnell’s missed conversion was irrelevant to the outcome but not when measured as a match statistic. The winner’s managed just one successful attempt from seven place-kicks – outhalf Darragh Fitzgerald missed a couple – a ratio that will need to improve the next day against their Dublin 6 rivals Terenure College.

St Mary’s might care to point to the fact they were missing two front-line backs, centre Maurice Walsh and wing Neal Flynn, to the five tries they scored or the character demonstrated in eyeballing Wesley without blinking on their own line.

There were a number of fine performances, notably captain Ronan Lennon, Croke and Brendan O’Connell, while fullback David O’Halloran demonstrated textbook tackling technique.

But arguably the most eye-catching contribution was the try crafted by Harry Norton. It was a gem, the centre scampering across the mud, straightening through a gap, twice stepping off his left foot to bamboozle defenders and then offloading to the supporting Eoin Moriarty who ran in under the posts. They will be few better tries in the competition.

They will also reflect on their good fortune, a try from wing Eoin Farrell that came from a blocked-down clearance and Moriarty’s second that owed a sliver to the providence of a good bounce as well as individual flair.

Wesley produced a superb team performance that pushed one of the pre-cup favourites perilously close to the exit door of the tournament. They led 13-12 at the interval, industrious hooker Andrew McCrann driven over after his side had elected to kick a close-in penalty award to touch.

Outhalf Kenneth McLaughlin kicked a brilliant touchline conversion and was foot perfect with the placed ball in tagging on three penalties that allowed Wesley to lead 16-12 soon after the restart.

Despite their gallant efforts, Wesley could not hold out and were ultimately denied only by small margins.

Scoring sequence:2 mins: McLaughlin pen, 0-3; 4: Farrell try, 5-3; 16: Moriarty try, O'Donnell con, 12-3; 22: McLaughlin pen, 12-6; 29: McCrann try, McLaughlin con, 12-13. Half-time: 12-13. 39: McLaughlin pen, 12-16; 45: Blackburn try, 17-16; 63: Moriarty try, 22-16; 76: Croke try, 27-16.

ST MARY'S COLLEGE:D O'Halloran; E Farrell, H Norton, K Grumley Traynor, E Moriarty; D Fitzgerald, S O'Donnell; G Gallivan, D Drumm, N Croke; R Lennon (capt), L Curran; B O'Connell, G Blackburn, M Fallon.

Replacements:D Callinan for Drumm (50 mins), Drumm for Blackburn (59-60 mins); D Horgan for Blackburn (75 mins).

WESLEY COLLEGE:E Fitzpatrick; J van der Flier, R Jermyn, K Bushe, E O'Byrne; K McLaughlin, I Cassidy; W Brightling, A McCrann, I Campbell (capt); S McDowell, I McGann; D Rice, S Deasy, D Brownlow. Replacements: A Dwyer Joyce for Brightling, J Rice for D Rice, I Masterson for Deasy (all 58 mins), C Lynn for Jermyn (75 mins).

Referee:B McNeice (Leinster).

Sin Bin:D Callinan (St Mary's) 58 mins.