Blackrock, with three tries by Chris Moore, threw down the gauntlet to the others in the quarter-finals when they emerged from this Leinster Schools' Junior Cup tie with a 14-point victory over Castleknock at Donnybrook yesterday. Blackrock's opening score came after seven minutes with Micheal Kavanagh drawing the cover before releasing Moore with a perfectly timed pass. Andrew Geraghty converted, and then a pushover try from Gary Walsh, with Kavanagh adding the points, saw the lead extended.
Castleknock responded with Peter Conway kicking two penalties to reduce the gap but Moore brought off an interception to score his second try with Geraghty converting. Yet Castleknock again showed their character when centre Eric Flanagan ran half the length of the pitch to leave it 21-11 at the interval.
In the second half, Castle knock had reason to feel aggrieved when full back Ciaran Delaney was tackled late as he attempted to follow through a kick into the opposition 22 but play was allowed to continue and the initiative was handed back to Blackrock as Moore went over for his third try. Cian Culliton also contributed a try, converted by Kavanagh, before a drop goal from Conway and a try from Delaney at least made the scoreline more realistic.
CASTLEKNOCK COLLEGE: C Delaney; T Moylan, E Flanagan, R Farrell, J Davis; P Conway, D Stapleton; P O' Reilly, E Mullen, J Twoomey, D Toner, A Quinn, G Mc Intyre, M Conneely, P Jones.
BLACKROCK COLLEGE: M Kavanagh; C Moore, D Nyhan, D Barnett, N Madden; D Cullen, A Geraghty; G Walsh, C Culliton, S Creavin, R O'Hara, N Lysaght, G Flanagan, D Laffan, E O'Keeffe. Replacements: P Young for Creavin (55 mins), M Lynch for Flanagan (55 mins), R Boles for Nyhan (59 mins).
Referee: D O'Mahony (ARLB).
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