Moore seals victory for Castleknock

Castleknock College 12 St Michael's College 5: Tighthead prop Martin Moore guaranteed Castleknock College's passage to the Leinster Schools' Junior Cup quarter-final with an injury-time try against St Michael's College at Donnybrook yesterday.

Castleknock made heavy work of their qualification for a date with Terenure College. They must have had 10 pick-and-drives at the line before openside Sam Hafford concentrated on getting his hands, not his body, across the whitewash. He succeeded, and outhalf Mark Coffey converted.

St Michael's centre Alex Kelly then made for the posts after Castleknock failed to hold him in the tackle. His forwards recycled for Kelly to get a second run, but he was closed down.

Gradually, Castleknock were spending more time without the ball, and blindside Darragh O'Driscoll did brilliantly to get his hands on the shirt of Ian Tuffy.

But the closest St Michael's came to cutting the deficit was from two solid but inaccurate penalty attempts from outhalf Andrew Kealy, whose line kicking was exemplary all game.

Referee Robert Doyle then called back Castleknock centre Gavin McIntyre, who was clean through, for a forward pass from Coffey.

That borderline decisio was made to look more contentious when secondrow Gary Featherstone dived in from one yard to make it 7-5 in the 48th minute.

Victory was ensured by Moore. Castleknock, patiently keeping the ball tight and away from St Michael's, wound down the clock while moving into the corner, where Moore crossed.

Scorers: Castleknock College: M Moore, S Hafford try each; M Coffey con. St Michael's College: G Featherstone try.

CASTLEKNOCK COLLEGE: R Thomas-Jones; M O'Sullivan, C Woodgate, G McIntyre, D King; M Coffey, N Moran; A Sweeney, R McGuinness, M Moore, D Heneghan, G Barry, D O'Driscoll, S Hafford, J O'Shea (capt). Replacement: E O'Leary for O'Driscoll 42 mins.

ST MICHAEL'S COLLEGE: S Pratt; I Tuffy, A Kelly, D Hynes, E Courtney; A Kealy, A Walsh; C Meenan, M Harnett, M Andreason, R Craig (capt), G Featherstone, B Graham, C Kenna, G Hogan. Replacements: S O'Dowda for Graham 10 mins; E MacMahon for Kenna ht; B O'Loughlin for Kealy, A Byrne for Walsh both 51 mins; M Craig for Hynes 59 mins.

Referee: R Doyle, Leinster Branch.