Gallant fightback ends in tears

RUGBY LEINSTER SCHOOLS' SENIOR CUP: Belvedere College 12 Gonzaga 7:THE TEARS on the faces of the Gonzaga players as they trudged from the pitch emphatically articulated the raw emotion of defeat. In the short term mitigating those feelings with a pride that should stem from a brilliant second-half performance, taking them to within a fingernail of victory may not be possible.

There is rarely a worse feeling in sport than standing on the threshold of victory only to be denied entry to the winner’s enclosure by the tiniest margin. For the second Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup quarter-final in as many days, the outcome was decided by an interpretation of whether a ball had been grounded over the line.

Yesterday at Stradbrook Gonzaga flanker and totem up front Neil Dillon crashed over the Belvedere College line deep into injury time with his side trailing 12-7. The semantics of whether he grounded it successfully or not are irrelevant because no one, not even referee Peter Dennehy who was best placed to arbitrate, could declare emphatically one way or another.

His whistle to end the game seconds later could not have sounded more shrill to Gonzaga ears. They appeared to lose the match in the first half when falling 12-0 behind, effectively scupper their own aspirations by missing four kickable penalties before clawing their way back into the game through secondrow David Mays’ try on 64 minutes.

Replacement centre Stephen Murphy converted and Gonzaga billeted themselves in the Belvedere 22 for the remainder of the match: much as they had done for most of the second half.

Despite dominating territory and possession for that period they could not definitively breach the Belvedere defence for a second time, even when the latter were down to 14 men following the sin binning on 55 minutes of secondrow Enda McCarthy for a dangerous tackle.

Replacements Eoin Cusack and Mark McGroarty carried powerfully, so too number eight David Doyle, Dillon and Mays while behind the scrum centre Daniel Diviney and captain and fullback Daniel McEvoy invariably broke the first line of defence but their opponents scrambled intelligently and Gonzaga were forced to endure the perpetual frustration of someone trying to complete a jigsaw with one piece missing.

It would be wrong not to acknowledge Belvedere’s impressive defiance, often in the shadow of their posts. Ben Geraghty led an excellent backrow that boasted an astronomical tackle count, but every team member chipped in. They also managed to survive despite labouring under a ridiculously high penalty count against them: somewhere in the region of 16 in total.

It seems ludicrous to accept that Belvedere were the only side transgressing in the contact areas but if referee Dennehy felt that to be the case, he should have issued more yellow cards for serial offenders. Penalties rained down like confetti in the final throes of the contest but the fact that the Gonzaga lineout and place-kicking were brittle narrowed their options to the simple tap-and-go.

Belvedere will wonder how they found themselves desperately hanging on in a match in which they had completely dominated for the opening 35 minutes. They bossed the contact areas, offloaded cleverly in the tackle, shredded the Gonzaga lineout, won most of their own through Greg Slattery and looked very accomplished behind the scrum.

The brace of tries scored by their excellent flanker Adrian D’Arcy – the first of which was improved upon by his brother and outhalf Matt – was a minimal return based on opportunity. Matt D’Arcy was a constant threat, whether picking holes in the Gonzaga defence or putting others into space. The one thing they lacked was the precision to capitalise on those chances, a recurring theme throughout the half.

Having played with the wind in the first half they knew that things would be tougher after the break but scarcely contemplated just how precarious their lifespan as defending champions was about to get.

Gonzaga earn plaudits in defeat but for Belvedere the dubious honour of opposing a rampant Blackrock College at the penultimate stage of the competition.

Scoring sequence: 22 mins: A D’Arcy try, M D’Arcy conversion, 7-0; 28 mins: A D’Arcy try, 12-0. Half-time: 12-0. 64 mins: Mays try, Murphy conversion, 12-7.

BELVEDERE COLLEGE: B Woods; D Murray, C Kennedy, C O’Shea, R Sheridan; M D’Arcy, H Nolan (capt); C O’Brien, C O’Flynn, D Casey; E McCarthy, G Slattery; A D’Arcy, M Oyuga, B Geraghty. Replacements: S Doyle for Sheridan (14 mins), P Gilsenan for Casey (60 mins), D O’Riordan for Woods (71 mins).

GONZAGA COLLEGE: D McEvoy (capt); D Layden, D Diviney, K Ryan, N Cullen; F Doherty, M Bolger; C Murray, N Rutledge, J MacRedmond; D Mays, J Whelan; D Burke, N Dillon, D Doyle. Replacements: M McGroarty for Burke (48 mins), S Murphy for Ryan (48 mins), E Cusack for Whelan (58 mins), A Byrne for Bolger (60 mins), J Ryan for Murray (65 mins).

Referee: P Dennehy (Leinster).