Jack Kelly leads St Michael’s into semi-finals

St Michael’s College 29 Terenure College 14

The anticipation of the first Bank of Ireland Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final was over almost as soon as the game begun as St Michael’s four-try blitz had Terenure reeling at Donnybrook on Monday.

The game was as good as gone for ‘Nure when they slumped out to a 24-point deficit on the back of beautifully constructed back play.

It was all predicated on a ball winning machine from a number of rangy athletic forwards, like Oisin Dowling, freed to play from a red card in the first round, Jack Dunne and Ryan Baird, backed up by the powerful running of Barry Fitzpatrick and grafting flanker Scott Penny, who always had his nose in the dirt.

The platform was there right from the initial meaty exchanges. The question of how St Michael’s would use their possession was soon answered when Jack Kelly’s angle onto the ball was supplemented by an arcing break that was a thing of beauty.

This was matched by Fitzpatrick’s simply designed one-two with his left wing Christopher Carey for the number eight glide away to the left corner.

Centre Ian O’Kelly’s muscular burst was completed by a laboured grounding for referee Brian MacNiece to calmly take his time in coming to a decision. It was try time again.

Terenure were in a spin and Kelly irresistibly came again to make profit out of a nice variation on the trademark Leinster wrap-around using outhalf Harry Byrne as a decoy rather than the link man.

Byrne converted the third and fourth to have Terenure staring down the barrel of a humiliation.

They had to find something of note from somewhere to keep St Michael’s in check.

Flanker Conor O’Sullivan cut a fine line and lock Adam Melia took up a handy position to drive low to the posts for scrumhalf Mark Fabian’s extras to make it 24-7 at the break.

The strong, gusting wind in Terenure’s sails meant they would have front-foot ball. They just couldn’t do enough with it.

They opted for the boot to get inside the 22. It was fine for position. But, not much else came out of it despite the decent work by centre Stevie Barry and scrumhalf Mark Fabian.

St Michael’s were comfortable keeping the ball in hand and Fitzpatrick was central in sending centre James Hickey speeding into the right corner.

There ensued a never-say-die approach to the gain line as ‘Nure captain Jack Dignam drove new standards.

His back row colleague O’Sullivan kept getting off the floor for work and prop Jack Boyden’s outstretched hand claimed a second try in the final quarter.

From there, there was urgency from Terenure without the finesse to dress it up. Left wing Zak Vaughan looked the part. Jacob Henry-Hayes offered to carry in a losing cause.

St Michael’s were content to play down the clock, though they lost Byrne to injury in what could be a blow for the semi-final.

St Michael's: J Kelly (capt); M Heaney, J Hickey, I O'Kelly, C Carey; H Byrne, T Killeen; R Kelleher, S Judge, S Griffin, R Baird, J Dunne, O Dowling, S Penny, B Fitzpatrick. Replacements: J O'Loughlin for Carey 39 mins; D Ryan for Byrne, M O'Donohoe for Griffin both 43 mins; P O'Beirne for Killeen 52 mins; M Kennedy for Judge, L Duffy for Kelleher, A Courtney for Dunne all 62 mins.

Terenure: J Murphy; C Collins, S Barry, T O'Donoghue, Z Vaughan; M Kirwan, M Fabian; J Boyden, J Henry-Hayes, S Collins, R Byrne, A Melia, J Clarkin, C O'Sullivan, J Dignam (capt). Replacements: J O'Hare for Byrne 4 mins; J Cadell for Clarkin 33 mins; A la Grue for Kirwan, C Ashmore for C Collins both 47 mins; S Patchell for S Collins 50 mins; C Cahill for Fabian 57 mins; H O'Neill for Henry-Hayes, R McGrath for Melia both 62 mins.

Referee: B MacNiece, Leinster Branch.