As anticipated, Newbridge College yesterday gave note that this year the Kildare school mean business. In this Leinster Schools' Senior Cup first round tie at Donnybrook, the province's league champions looked as if they still had more in their tank despite an utterly lopsided nine tries to one rout of a lighter if gamey Gonzaga College side.
In the physical stakes at any rate - which is of paramount importance at this level - it looked like a bit of a mismatch from the kick-off, and this well-drilled Newbridge side also had a much better idea of what they were about.
Indeed, when confident out-half Richard Noble launched a towering first-minute diagonal touch kick from halfway to within a few metres of the opposition line they had Gonzaga on the back foot - and that was pretty much how it remained. Noble subsequently worked a double miss-move in midfield before putting left-winger Fergus DrakeLee over in the corner inside three minutes.
Within another couple of minutes they doubled their lead when hooker Garvan de Bruir charged clear to spreadeagle the Gonzaga defence, centre Barry Guckian making hay off the recycled ball and then making the ball available when tackled short of the line for the supporting Ronan Murphy to score.
Newbridge had simply too much power for them throughout their ranks. Their big tight five kept the scrum going forward and their main fringe runner, gargantuan loose-head Diarmuid Kenneally kept punching over the gain line. Lock Tony Buckley also made some big yardage, while Henry Hegarty captained them from the front. Useful number eight John O'Sullivan augmented some muscular work off the ground with some brave snaffling of loose ball on it.
Working off a steady stream of clean set-piece and ruck ball, the straight-running Newbridge backs indulged themselves heartily, with all bar right-winger Ryan Cunningham contributing to their inevitable haul - and only a marginal foot-intouch decision denied him a breakaway try.
Noble looks every inch a footballer, if a bit too over-confident at times here. Double try-scorer Barry Guckian was a particularly potent runner while left-winger Drake-Lee poached a second try and then showboated in front of a delighted Kildare support with the deftest of reverse passes.
By then, indeed long beforehand, the only question was the margin of Newbridge's win though in fairness to Gonzaga, they stuck to their task courageously. John Freeman manufactured some line-out ball, Diarmuid Ryan put his body about up front, half-backs Brian O'Riordan and Stephen Pinkster probed as best they could with the pickings that came their way, as did centre Clive Brennan, while winger Stuart McCarron tackled well. Most of all, few players will adorn the venue with a better display of tackling than centre Brian McCluskey, who put his body on the line with a series of crunching hits in midfield.
One burst by Brennan led to a rare sortie forward and Gonzaga briefly raised prospects of making Newbridge toil after 17 minutes when fringe pressure by O'Riordan and his back-row pinned Newbridge back. From rare attacking ruck ball, O'Riordan, Pinkster and McCluskey passed neatly on the blind side for Colin Mullins to score a well-taken try by the corner flag.
Buoyed by that, Gonzaga kept making their tackles and limited play to the middle third, but from there Barry Guckian offloaded in the tackle and fellow centre Paddy Byrne carved through from 35 metres out.
That was pretty much that. Noble finding his kicking range to add the conversion. Then Andrew Guckian rounded off sustained pressure which had actually begun with a knock-on and while Gonzaga were reduced to 14 men, with a sniping try from close-in. Five more tries after the interval accurately reflected the exchanges as Newbridge made four tactical changes with one eye on a second round tie against one of the two sides to have beaten them this season, St Mary's. That should be interesting.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Drake-Lee try, 5-0; 5: Murphy try, 10-0; 17: Mullins try, 10-5; 27: Byrne try, Noble conversion, 17-5; 34: A Guckian try, Noble conversion, 24-5; 44: Kenneally try, Noble conversion, 5-31; 50: B Guckian try, Noble conversion, 5-38; 59: Drake-Lee try, Noble conversion, 545; 65: B Guckian try and conversion, 5-52; 67: O'Sullivan try, 5-57.
Newbridge: R Murphy; R Cunningham, P Byrne, B Guckian, F Drake-Lee; P Noble, A Guckian; D Kenneally, G de Bruir, N Hughes, T Gibson, T Buckley, H Hegarty (capt), J O'Sullivan, J Roche. Replacements: P Jenkins for Murphy (62 mins), L Heavey for Kenneally (62 mins), C Rees for A Guckian (64 mins), H Garrett for Roche (64 mins).
Gonzaga: C Mullins; D Marah, C Brennan, B McCluskey, S McCarron; S Pinkster, B O'Riordan; P Kevans, A Feeney, G D'Alton, D Moriarty, J Freeman (capt), D Forbes, D Ryan, B McDonogh. Replacements: D Butterly for Forbes (20 mins), R Davy for Mullins (34 mins).
Referee: D Keane (ARLB).
