Rockwell College 25 Castletroy College 7:Rockwell College proved far too strong for Castletroy in this quarter-final at Clanwilliam and kept alive their hopes of a three-in-a-row success.
As a contest it was over by half-time by which stage Rockwell led 18-0. It was a half to be remembered particularly for Rockwell centre Rory Parata who scored all the points with two tries, two penalties and a conversion. One of his penalties was a superb effort from near halfway.
With their outstanding captain Aidan Butler in the sin bin for persistent offside after 32 minutes it was inevitable that with numerical advantage that Castletroy would fare better on the resumption and so it proved Their persistent early pressure was rewarded with a well-worked try by Liam Cronin,brother of international Seán, which Conor Linehan converted. But Linehan had no joy with three first-half penalties which would have kept his side more in touch.
Rockwell have a powerful set of forwards who created the platform for this success with Butler, Adam Horgan and Jimmy Feehan being particularly prominent. Parata, scrumhalf Ben Riley and Steve McMahon were best of a back line that squandered possession too often in the second half.
Rockwell led after eight minutes when Parata kicked a penalty and six minutes later he flew in for the first of his tries which he converted. He was twice involved in a sweeping move before he got in for his second try.
Three minutes from the end fullback McMahon had the final try after he burst through a defence that was overworked by that stage and Parata converted. Cronin, Ben Burns and Daragh Kennedy were always prominent in the Castletroy pack with Rory Cunningham doing well at scrumhalf.
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