St Mary's College...6 Clongowes Wood College...3The teams resembled two weary prize-fighters at the final whistle, battered, bruised, the livid scars underlining the ferocity of the contest. They had expended every last ounce of energy, the winners' celebrations sustained by the euphoria of the moment, the losers face down, littered on the Donnybrook turf.
It may not have been a classic in terms of scintillating rugby but those present will long remember it as one of the most physically brutal and enthralling matches to grace the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup competition.
The respective packs tore into each other. Those loitering without intent at rucks were simply blown away. Every scrum, every lineout provided a contest within a contest; nothing asked for, nothing given, the intensity borrowed from professional sport.
It's not surprising given the physicality of the exchanges that errors were reasonably commonplace. These largely denied both teams the continuity and sustained field position that might have pre-empted try scoring chances. Instead the match hinged on half chances teetering one way then another.
Clongowes bossed the set scrums but despite a steady flow of possession could not breach a well-structured and disciplined St Mary's defence.
It was on that rock-solid facet of their opponents' game that Clongowes' ambitions would founder. In this respect none excelled more than Mary's openside Alex Hutchinson.
When chinks did occasionally show, Hutchinson was quick to shore up the breach, often putting in two or three tackles in the one sequence of play. But the epitome of their hard-nosed defiance was captain and flanker Paul Nash who had a marvellous game, ably assisted by Brendan Smith and Brian McGovern in particular.
Behind the scrum outhalf Jonathan Sexton was a pivotal figure, unyielding defensively and showing tremendous composure in kicking the two penalties, neither of which was straight-forward.
Clongowes tried to attack St Mary's through the midfield and then further out through their strong running, physically powerful fullback Frank Kearney but could find no way past Stephen Grissing who excelled both defensively and with the ball in hand.
Up front Clongowes' Gavin Murphy led by example but the pack while making headway just seemed to take the ball one phase two far or perversely not far enough at other times. It was a very fine line.
Clongowes took the lead on 22 minutes with a neat drop goal from centre Aonghus Smyth and that advantage lasted until a couple of minutes before the interval when Sexton posted the first of his two penalties. Kearney couldn't convert a difficult long range penalty into the strong wind on 46 minutes.
St Mary's lost centre Michael Finlay and prop McGovern to a clash of heads but it was they who finished the stronger; Sexton nervelessly kicking a 22-metre penalty with three minutes remaining after Clongowes were penalised for collapsing a maul.
Teams with less ability and quality than Clongowes will survive later into the tournament. The Kildare school were just unfortunate with the draw and certainly no one could fault their commitment or application at Donnybrook yesterday. It just came down to a kick of the ball.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 22 mins: Smyth drop goal, 3-0; 33: Sexton penalty, 3-3. Half-time: 3-3. 67: Sexton penalty, 3-6.
ST MARY'S COLLEGE: G Roche; P Keegan, S Grissing, M Finlay, E Lernihan; J Sexton, V Hammond; M Houlihan, D Fallon, B McGovern; C McInerney, B Smith; P Nash (capt), G O'Meara, A Hutchinson. Replacements: R Morris for McGovern (57 mins); J Finnigan for Finlay (57 mins); B McDermott for Hammond (65 mins).
CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE: R Kearney; M Regan, D Sharkey, A Smyth, M Hickey Crowe; K Finnane, M Soraghan; S Kelly, G Moran, P Walsh; G Redmond, R Fagan; J Moloney, P O'Meara, G Murphy (capt). Replacements: B Coyle for Moloney 49 mins; S Nolan for Redmond 59 mins.
Referee: A Rolland (IRFU).
