Garbally-43 Rice-6

Connacht Schools Senior Cup from Thursday

With the Elverys Connacht Schools Senior Cup in full flow, Garbally College travelled to Westport RFC to face Rice College in both team's second game of the competition.

Garbally started the stronger, with their pack giving them dominance for what would be the entire game. It was only the intelligent kicking from Rice College's outhalf Tom McHale that kept the game pinned in Garbally's half. The game started out as a scrappy affair, with both teams taking some time to adapt to the referee's interpretation, with Garbally conceding penalties due to backchat towards the ref.

Connacht Under 18 McHale was kicking into space at every opportunity, and the Rice wingers were putting a lot of pressure on the Garbally back three. McHale had an opportunity to open the scoring, but the ball fell off the tee on his run-up and he was forced into a snap dropkick. Garbally attempted to throw the ball around, mixing forwards in with the backs nicely, yet handling errors often proved their downfall.

Seven minutes in however, they finally broke through, with the dangerous Stephen Tierney going over in the corner. Keller was unable to add the extras. From this point it seemed that Garbally would kick on and start to overpower their opposition, yet McHale never panicked and got Rice off the mark with a penalty a few minutes later. Garbally were exterting a lot of pressure on Rice, especially at scrumtime, but McHale was using the wind well. A further penalty for McHale followed bringing Rice to within a point.

From there, Garbally opened up. A series of counterattacks, led in particular by their exciting full back Tierney, brought play into the Rice college half. Tighthead prop Conor Kenny carried through a number of defenders before the ball was spun out to Irish under 19 Peter Claffey to go over in the right corner. Again Keller was unable to add the conversion, and the score at halftime was 10-6 to Garbally.

With the wind advantage now taken from them, Rice opted not to kick anymore, and the power of Garbally's team started to tell. The Garbally back row started breaking through tackles, gaining yards and it was only a matter of time before lock Sam Holland powered his way over under the posts. Keller duly dispatched the kick and the floodgates opened. Garbally were after the bonus point try now, and managed to force a penalty after Rice pulled down a dangerous maul that gained 20 metres. A kick to the corner followed, and after a series of drives, hooker Niall Higgins went over in the corner, with Keller's kick a beauty, sailing through the posts.

It was only to get worse for Rice. From the restart, Dylan Connolly caught the kick and made a linebreak, before offloading to Keller and then Kenny. Garbally kept it alive and Connolly was able to run in under the posts to add to the extending lead.

Peter Claffey was able to add another try, before scrumhalf Donnachadh Reilly was able to show impressive speed going over in the corner. Keller ended the day with 4 from 7 from the boot, with the majority of those from tough angles in tricky conditions.

Tom McHale and Conor Kenny were the standouts of the day, with Kenny dominating in the tight, with a good work rate to get in support of linebreaks, while McHale did what he could to keep Rice in it behind a retreating pack.

For Garbally, a semi final place is in sight, and bigger challenges await. It will be interesting to see if a team could punish some of their handling errors but the signs look good for the school from Ballinasloe.

Rice College: 15. Stephen Staunton, 14. Philip O'Malley, 13. Diarmiud McGrea, 12. Cillian Browne, 11. Ciaran Harrington, 10. Tom McHale, 9. Steven Cawley, 1. Brendan McLoughlin, 2. Sean Southgate, 3. Richard Duffy, 4. Edward Dunning, 5. Jack Cashman, 6. Colm Mannion, 7. Robert Fabby, 8. Michael Bradley; 16. Peter Speilman.

Garbally College: 15. Stephen Tierney, 14. Peter Flannery, 13. Sean Horan, 12. Ian Duffy, 11. Cian Dooley, 10. Simon Keller, 9. Donnachadh Reilly; 1. Darren O'Hara, 2. Niall Higgans, 3. Conor Kenny, 4. Sam Holland, 5. Peter Claffey, 6. Conor Barrett, 7. Dylan Connolly, 8. Jack Codyre; 16. Anthony Curley, 17. Kevin Flynn, 18. Brian Glenavon, 19. Liam Murray, 20. Frankie Hopkins, 21. Robbie Kelly, 22. Frank Donohue.

Match report courtesy of the Connacht Rugby website

Leinster Schools Senior Cup 2014 Preview

The Leinster Schools Senior Cup 2014 is just over two months away from beginning and the pre-cup ‘friendlies’ have been going weekly since September. The Leinster Schools Senior Cup Facebook page has compiled a preview of the 2014 edition of the competition.

Blackrock having won the competition in March are strong favourites to retain the trophy, with seven returning from the team that won the Senior Cup, they have had a very strong pre-season to date. Highlight wins include a 61-5 win over St Marys, a 29-19 win over Clongowes and 29-5 win over Terenure.  The Blackrock side includes Leinster U18 Representative Jack Power and Leinster U19 Representative Nick Timoney.

St Michael’s have also had a good season to date with good wins over CBC Cork and Clongowes, 21-0 and 17-15 respectively. St Michael’s have eight representatives with Leinster including James Ryan and Adam Leavy, although 2014 may prove a year too early for this young team.

Clongowes on the other hand have had a respectable but below par pre-season to date recording two loses against St Michaels and Blackrock, although they had a good victory against Belvedere winning 22-13. The Clongowes side includes Fergal Cleary, a Leinster U19 and Ireland U18 representative.

Belvedere have a made good progress as well in pre-cup season, with good wins over Terenure and Castleknock 19-15 and 24-11 respectively but also playing out an impressive 12-12 draw with St Michaels. The Belvedere side includes Leinster U19 Representative James Doyle and Leinster U18 Representative Jack Hutchinson.

St Marys have also had a good pre-season recording a very impressive 29-7 win over Belvedere and also defeating Sligo Grammar 27-0 although they had a bad loss to pre-tournament favourites Blackrock, losing out 61-5.

Terenure have had a disappointing pre-season to date having lost to Belvedere and Blackrock 19-15 and 29-5 respectively. The Terenure side includes Leinster U19 Representative Tim Schmidt.

Newbridge are being considered as the dark horses of the 2014 competition, this is backed up with their squad who reached the semi-final and final of the Junior Cup in 2011 and 2012. Their league form has shown that the side is considerably good, picking up wins over Cistercian College, Roscrea 12-0, CBC Monkstown 24-7 and a massive 86-0 win over Presentation College Bray. The Newbridge side includes Leinster U18 Representative Jimmy O’Brien and Leinster U19 Representative Hugh O’Donnell.

Castleknock have also had a good league season topping their section, with wins over Gonzaga 22-5, Wesley 18-9 and Kings Hospital 18-3, however they recorded a 24-11 loss over Belvedere. The Castleknock side includes U18 Representative Sean O’Hare.

Cistercian College, Roscrea having reached the semi-final of the 2013 competition return back this time with a considerably less talented squad but their league results have not reflected this picking up victories against St Andrew 18-17, St Gerards 10-8 and CBC Monkstown 28-15. The Roscrea side includes Leinster U18 representatives Dan Lavelle and Tim Foley.

St Andrews having not qualified for the 2013 competition have had a good league run finishing third to automatically qualify for the 2014 competition. St Andrews have had many good results throughout the season so far, highlights include a 48-0 victory against Presentation Bray, a 22-22 draw against Newbridge and a 23-11 victory against CBC Monkstown. The St Andrews side includes Leinster U18 Representative Greg Jones.

The draw for the Leinster Schools Senior Cup is taking place on Monday the 9th of December 2013.

Remember to like Leinster Schools Senior Cup on Facebook and follow @LSSeniorCup on Twitter.

Schools rugby = top notch

I won’t begin to pretend that HarpinOnRugby is “covering” the Leinster Schools Senior Cup this season…that job is being ably done by the likes of the Heave radio show/podcast from Dublin South FM, Knockon.ie website and of course Setanta Sports who this week showed all four quarterfinals live.

But I will say this…having attended two first round matches and been able to record & watch back all of the quarterfinals, if that’s the standard of the rugby that’s coming through the ranks, the future for Irish rugby is certainly bright.

And before I go on…I’m not suggesting for a second that the standard in Leinster is any better than in the other provinces, it’s just that’s all I have been able to see.

The four semifinalists this year are holders St.Michaels, Roscrea, Newbridge College and my alma mater Blackrock College – congratulations to all of them, and whatever way the semifinal draw works out they are bound to be fascinating ties.

We certainly can’t go without acknowledging the valiant efforts of the vanquished schools this week either…Clongowes, Terenure, CBC Monkstown and Kilkenny certainly played their part in four cracking contests this week.

And even going back to the first round, I can’t forget watching St Gerards coach, the former Ireland international Eric Miller look on as his team were being defeated by Clongowes at Templeville Road.  His side were well beaten on the day but even so you could see how emotionally invested he was in his team and to me that’s what this level of rugby is all about.

When watching the lads play you can see the effort that has been put in throughout the year and the only regret I have had watching this year’s contests to date has been that one team has had to be the losing side each time.  I’ll fall JUST short of trotting out the dreadful cliché “they’re all winners”, but from the players themselves to their families, coaches, and of course their fellow schoolmates who don the jerseys and live through every minute of every game, they certainly do deserve to be applauded.  Bravo. JLP

Clongowes Wood-30 St Gerard’s-6

Don’t expect your run-of-the-mill match report here…I got to Templeville Rd after kickoff and didn’t get the starting lineups, so I had no idea of any of the names.

But basically although Gerard’s opened the scoring with an early penalty and doubled their lead with a second, the first time Clongowes’ backs found a bit of space they went over and from then on the result wasn’t really in doubt.

When Eric Miller’s Gerard’s had the ball going forward they weren’t able to get into the opposition 22, mostly thanks to dogged Wood defence courtesy of a back row that occasionally drew the attention of the ref but more often than not forced a turnover.

On the other hand the 2010 & 2011 champion Clongowes just needed to get a couple of passes away from the base and even when tackled there always seemed to be a man available for the offload and in the end it was a satisfying 5-try haul for them.

The score was 17-6 at halftime and once the hailstones that wrote off the third quarter subsided, Clongowes turned the screw to see themselves safely through to the quarterfinals.

Still, Miller should be proud of his lads – you couldn’t help but admire the way their hooker shouted “Lads – we DO NOT DIE!” at his team-mates after the fourth try went over, but they really seemed to be second best in every area on the day.

Are Clongowes contenders?  On the evidence of today, it certainly seems so, though as they go deeper in the tournament they are bound to face sterner tests and just like all the other teams still left will no doubt be watching Monday’s draw with interest.

All About Heave

"Heave" is getting ready for kickoff on the 23rd…

With the kick off of the Leinster Schools Cups just around the corner 93.9 Dublin South FM are launching a new hour long Schools Rugby show "Heave".

Every Wednesday, from the 23rd of January, at 9pm tune in for all the latest news, reviews and analysis of this years Senior and Junior Cups with a splash of the Murray and Godfrey Cups for good measure.

The Dublin South FM team will also be joined by some familiar voices from Cups gone by in a special Cup Memories section as well as concentrating on the next generation of Leinster and Irish rugby as they cut their teeth in the most famous Schoolboy competition in the country.

If you are a player, fan, old boy or just want to know what all the bloody fuss is about "Heave" is the place for you every Wednesday at 9 from the 23rd of January.

You can follow the show on Twitter @heave939 or on Facebook at facebook.com/heave939 and it will be podcast every week on www.dublinsouthfm.ie

Schools Cup Rugby–writers wanted

The draw for the Leinster Schools Senior Cup takes place tonight which means the season is just around the corner.

From January until March in 2013 we’ll get to see the next batch of Johnny Sextons and Jamie Heaslips battle it out for glory.

Here on HoR2, we want to help uncover the next Gerry Thornleys and Tony Wards.  We’re pretty sure that there’s much better talent than them already out there!

If you’d like to cover some aspect of schools rugby for HoR2 over the coming months, or indeed know anyone who does, all you have to do is follow the link and let us know by email.

It can be articles about your own school’s team & players, it can be reports on matches, it can be tweeting latest scores from individual matches, it can be overviews of the competition itself, it can be from any province in Ireland, it can be about schools rugby from anywhere in the world.

So get in touch and we’ll get you on board to show off your writing skills and help us keep tabs on these great competitions.

In the meantime, here’s a documentary “Only In God” on the 2008 Leinster Senior Cup. Doesn’t do a bad job capturing the emotion of the tournament, even if it IS about Belvo. JLP (#RBAW)

© JL Pagano 2012