SCHOOLS' RUGBY:CBC MONKSTOWN blasted from the blocks to fire in two tries by centres James Kearns and Sam Hanley, converted by outhalf Mark Rogers, in the first seven minutes as the platform for their Leinster Schools' (Section B) Vinnie Murray Senior Cup first-round 25-12 win over a somewhat unlucky High School at Kilternan yesterday.
High School took their medicine and struck back impressively, with their forwards surging into the game to set up tries from their captain Chris Downey and prop Cian McDonagh to put the contest right back in the melting pot.
Then, the losers had a strong claim for a try that was not allowed near half-time when their scrumhalf Conn Loane followed a kick through. He seemed to win the race to the ball. The referee thought otherwise.
From there, Rogers took CBC five further clear with his own try and two penalties in the second half, rubbing salt into an open wound as they ran the clock down to progress to a quarter-final shot at Catholic University School.
Certainly, CUS will be no one’s fodder this year. Two early tries from wing Colm Driver and number eight Ryan Sheedy – they both crossed twice – gave CUS the confidence to topple St Andrew’s College 37-0 at Railway Union.
While scrumhalf Mark Hiney was the fulcrum of the CUS attack, Driver ended the afternoon with 17 points due to the fluency of his inside backs, with replacement wing Shane Bodkin and outhalf David Beakey also breaching the Andrew’s defence, despite the best efforts of hard-working lock Nathan Belton.
Presentation Bray took advantage of their superior pace out wide to build a lead and made use of a stonewall defence to protect it in their 19-13 win over Newpark Comprehensive at Ballycorus.
Fullback Harry Barrett flashed over for two tries and flanker Cormac O’Donoghue found the line for the third as Presentation Bray constructed a comfortable 19-6 gap until a late Newpark Comprehensive try from their Leinster Under-19 backrower Zac Jungmann gave the game a sudden thrilling climax.
Newbridge College will look for a big improvement in their handling from their 20-3 defeat of Mount Temple at Barnhall RFC. Number eight James Connolly’s tackle count was through the roof and he also provided go-forward from the base of the scrum.
It was left to Peter Osbourne to steal the show with 15 points. The outhalf directed operations well, nailing both conversions of the tries from centre William O’Brien and himself. Temple were not too far off the pace, with centre Jamie Buckett and outhalf Adam Merrey, their points scorer from a penalty, effective.
The brothers Fox, Eoghan and Seán, struck for three tries between them as Skerries Community College recovered from a double-scores 10-5 half-time deficit to hold off Sandford Park 17-15 in what was a nail-biter at Ashbourne.
This was a repeat of the (Section A) McMullen Cup semi-final – Skerries won that one 27-20 – and Sandford gave just as good as they got. Their half-time lead was the result of a try from flanker Lee Deighton and the kicking of full-back Rob Foley. Eoghan Fox had a brace of tries before Seán made the decisive break for the try that made all the difference in the end before centre Elliott Finn-Phillips squeezed the scoreboard with an unconverted try late on.
