CBC Monkstown's two best players, number eight Paul Lawless and scrum-half Jamie Kearns, combined with devastating effect three minutes into injury time to condemn Newbridge to a heartbreaking defeat in this Leinster Schools' Junior League final at Donnybrook yesterday.
The powerful Newbridge boys looked certain winners when out-half Dara O'Shea's kick caught out the slow-turning Monkstown defence in the 54th minute. On to the ball came left wing David Murphy, who had already secured Newbridge's first-half injury time try. He scrambled the ball over the line where centre Breiffne O'Donnell appeared to apply downward pressure. But referee Dermot O'Mahony disallowed the score because of obstruction on Jonathan Murphy and Monkstown were still in contention, although trailing 106.
This would not have been that significant had Monkstown not lifted the siege. They went down the park to force two penalties and a five-metre scrum. From there, Lawless picked from the base of the scrum and when he was repelled, Kearns found a hole in the Newbridge cover to tunnel over to the left of the posts.
CBC Monkstown: J Murphy; I Shakespeare, N Kearns, B O'Neill, R Clarke; S Curry, J Kearns; N Byrne, S McShane, K Doyle; R Connor, A Murdock; S O'Farrelly, A Murray, P Lawless.
Newbridge College: R McCabe; W Curran, J Mulryan, B O'Donnell, D Murphy; D O'Shea, B Long; K Neylon, R Downey, E Walshe; D Nolan, P Turley; J Heaslip, J Bond, T Kindregan. Replacement: A Savage for Walshe 40 mins.
Referee: D O'Mahony.
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