A fast start by St Patrick's Classical School undid Castlecomer Community School in a keenly-contested Leinster Schools' Section A Duff Junior Cup semi-final at Naas yesterday.
Diarmuid Murphy and Josh McDermott finished off first-half tries for Navan. Castlecomer hit back with an Eddie Brophy try, converted by Thomas Breen, to make it 12-7 at the break. Number eight Seán O'Brien clinched the 17-7 win with a 45th-minute touchdown.
It was nip and tuck in the other semi-final. Mount Temple held their line for the last five minutes to edge out De La Salle, Churchtown 14-10 at Distillery Road. The key was Eoin Connolly's two conversions of tries from Emmet Connolly and Stuart Cooling against two unconverted efforts from De La Salle's second row Niall Mahon and prop Declan O'Neill.
At Naas: St Patrick's Classical School 17 (D Murphy, J McDermott, S O'Brien try each; A O'Sullivan con), Castlecomer CS 7 (E Brophy try; T Breen con).
At Distillery Road: Mount Temple 14 (S Cooling, Emmet Connolly try each; Eoin Connolly 2 cons), De La Salle, Churchtown 10 (N Mahon, D O'Neill try each).
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