Schools rugby/ St Michael's College 34 St Gerard's School 8:The overwhelming opinion of the neutral spectator departing Donnybrook yesterday was that this St Michael's side, sent out by Joe McDonnell and Tony Ward, is by far the best seen in recent years.
St Gerard's were unlucky to trail 12-8 at the interval after crossing for the best try in this year's competition, thus far anyway.
It originated off soft hands by fullback Mark Toal-Lennon to put Cailbhe Doherty in space. The St Michael's cover was closing but Doherty accelerated into the 22. It took a fellow sprinter, St Michael's wing Paddy Brophy, to haul him down. From the recycle, Duffy cleverly cut through a well-structured defence.
It had taken St Michael's 20 minutes to get into the opposing half. Their scrum was consistently wheeled - the loss this week of tighthead Andrew Pollard to a fractured ankle being keenly felt.
And still, their first attack yielded a try for lock Conor O'Sullivan. Rajan Reilly turned over possession by blocking an attempted St Gerard's clearance before O'Sullivan twisted over the line a couple of phases later.
Duffy reduced arrears with a penalty before St Gerard's crossed for their solitary, yet memorable, try. In response, St Michael's upped the ante with another quality try from rangy fullback Michael O'Malley. Captain Conor Cleary belted over the conversion from the touchline.
After Paddy Mallon, Ian Leonard and Stephen Malone made significant yardage, the ball was whisked wide, Cleary providing the link to send Ruairí Pratt over for what proved the game's decisive score. Moments later Cleary again supplied the delivery for Reilly to cross out wide before Pratt profited from another Mallon break for his second try. It had class stamped all over it as he handed off Doherty before stepping neatly inside Toal-Lennon to dive under the posts.
St Gerard's, so competitive in the opening exchanges, were now being torn asunder and Leonard, a loosehead prop, showed a clean pair of heels to scamper over for try number six.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 20 mins: C O'Sullivan try, 5-0; 24: M Duffy pen, 5-3; 28: M Duffy try, 5-8; 33: M O'Malley try, C Cleary con, 12-8. Half-time. 43: R Pratt try, 17-8; 49: R Reilly try, 22-8; 53: R Pratt try, C Cleary con, 29-8; 58: I Leonard try, 34-8.
ST MICHAEL'S COLLEGE:M O'Malley; D Marshall, R Pratt, C Cleary (capt), P Brophy; S Malone, F Meighan; I Leonard, J Daniel, M Kelly; C O'Sullivan, K McKenna; A Byrne, R Reilly, P Mallon. Replacements: S Mahony for K McKenna (39 mins), C Turley for J Daniel, A Kealy for S Malone (both 60 mins), J Daniel for Turley (blood, 61-64 mins).
ST GERARD'S SCHOOL: M Toal-Lennon; D Byrne, C Doherty, M Duffy (capt), P O'Meara; L Duff, M Glynn; G Crotty, T Moran, A McGlinchey; W Wojnar, S Deignan; J Carroll, M Tyrrell, K Kelly. Replacements: K Ho for T Moran, O Rosenstock for W Wojnar, T Delahunt for M Glynn, D O'Rourke for P O'Meara (all 59 mins).
Referee: A Rolland(Leinster).
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