Leinster Schools Senior cup quarter-final: Blackrock College 29 St Michael’s College 13
Johnny O’Sullivan’s double was decisive as defending champions Blackrock College marched into the Leinster Schools Senior Cup semi-final at Energia Park on Friday afternoon with a comfortable win over St Michael’s in a repeat of last year’s decider.
Despite the greasy ball, these schools looked to go wide early, trading crossfield kicks and the ambition to play at speed.
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Rock exposed space on the right, the feet of James Browne doing the trick and clean passing put Paddy Clancy on the ball, but his grubber just eluding the reach of Rhys Keogh.
Blackrock narrowed their focus to go through the middle, with tighthead Sam Bishti showing surprising speed to test out St Michael’s centre Charlie McConnell.
A knock-on was gratefully accepted by St Michael’s and their maul took them out of trouble and into enemy territory.
Bernard White’s drive took him over the top of Cathal Lydon’s tackle where Owen Twomey’s groundwork enabled Ethan Black to strike the lead penalty in the 19th minute.
Rock’s decision to keep the ball worked wonderfully, replacement Aiden Vetjens’s late line unlocking the defence to send Johnny O’Sullivan into the right corner for a 5-3 lead in the 19th minute.
In a flash, sweet passing put Browne clear down the right where St Michael’s captain Duinn Maguire and Dan Ryan shunted the wing into touch. When the decision was taken to go wide, fullback Ryan was in place to intercept in another example of St Michael’s survival to the half-time whistle.
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A sustained St Michael’s attack winkled out a penalty for Black to guarantee a 6-5 edge in the 39th minute, but they strayed offside to offer Paddy Clancy a shot at goal to make 8-6 in Rock’s favour in the 43rd minute.
Blackrock struck for their second try after centre White’s hard line exploited a gap at the tail of the lineout. Clancy’s lob was then collected by Vetjens for the try, brilliantly converted by Clancy.
Then, Clancy’s delicate ball over the top was collected by Joe Reddan and moved to White for the third try, converted by Clancy to make it 22-6 in the 57th minute.
St Michael’s centre Black saw a pass slip forward for White to grab the intercept and Johnny O’Sullivan controlled the ball to speed away to the posts for his second try, which Clancy converted to put the game away.
St Michael’s were quick to show character late on, implementing a maul strategy for Cian Walsh to drive over, with Black converting.
SCORERS – Blackrock: J O’Sullivan 2 tries; A Vetjens, B White try each; P Clancy pen, 3 cons. St Michael’s: C Walsh try; E Black 2 pens, con.
BLACKROCK COLLEGE: J Reddan; J Browne, J O’Sullivan, B White, R Keogh; P Clancy, A Lindner; B Guerin, H O’Neill, S Bishti (capt); G Wall, A Smykovskiy; M Walsh, M O’Sullivan, B Walsh.
Replacements: A Vetjens for Keogh (13 mins); L Coffey for Lindner (55); C Power for M Walsh, R Savage for B Walsh, D Cadden for Reddan (all 64); G Eggers for O’Neill, M Cullen for Guerin, L Goldan for Bishti (all 68).
ST MICHAEL’S COLLEGE: D Ryan; C Kenny, C McConnell, E Black, M McCarthy; C Lydon, L Kilmurray; C Canniffe, J Kennedy, D Maguire (capt); C O’Neill, J Elliott; B Gorman, O Twomey, M Berman.
Replacements: P O’Gorman for Elliott (51 mins); D Hassett for McCarthy (57); M McCarthy for Hassett (59); O Richardson for McCarthy (60); C Walsh for Canniffe (64).
Referee: A Cole, Leinster Branch.
Semi-final draw
Blackrock College v Cistercian College, Roscrea
St Fintan’s High School v Terenure College
Ties to be played at Energia Park on week commencing Monday, March 3rd.
