Terenure College 43 The King's Hospital 19
Sam Dardis, the younger brother of Ireland u-20 Billy, worked a hat-trick into an impressive performance by Terenure in their Leinster Junior Cup first round win over King’s Hospital at Donnybrook on Monday.
The hand of lady luck meant a talented King’s Hospital side were drawn against the pre-competition favourites and it was obvious from the off that these were two quality outfits.
Terenure took control at the outset with centre Adam La Grue’s excellent first try before Daniel Eiffe’s eye for a gap leveled it up in what turned out to be a tit-for-tat first half, La Grue scoring his second in the 14th minute.
Outhalf Dominic Henry-Hayes converted and kicked a penalty just before Terenure lost La Grue and wing James Nolan to yellow cards. This was the invitation Hospital needed to fire up their attack. Centre Eiffe’s hand-off and acceleration took him away from the cover for outhalf Ian West to make it 15-12 in the 23rd minute.
It was then Dardis put on the after-burners for his first in injury-time.
The next score would be crucial, the next try possibly definitive.
Terenure got better as the game wore on, with wing Luke Murnaghan the extra man at the end of a flowing move.
Felix Campbell’s try narrowed the deficit to six points but Henry-Hayes steadied Terenure with a penalty and they showed class in finishing with tries by flanker Patrick Heneghan and the second and third by Dardis.
TERENURE: S Dardis; L Murnaghan, A La Grue, J Walsh, J Nolan; D Henry-Hayes, M O'Shea; L Vaughan, B Bruce, J Boland; C Somerville (capt), R McGrath; P Heneghan, L Grady, C Shenton.
Replacements: M Hasegawa for Boland 46 mins; G Morgan for O'Shea, B Vaughan for L Vaughan both 53 mins; J Devlin for Henry-Hayes 55 mins; B Morris for Bruce, A Kelly for Grady, R McInnes for Murnaghan, C Creed for Walsh all 60 mins.
KING'S HOSPITAL: P Kenny; C Wokocha, D Eiffe, P O'Boy (capt), S Boland; I West, J Courtney; S Wrafter, F Campbell, N Sibanda; T Cole, Z Bursey; R Leitch, B Wallace, C Howley.
Replacements: D Gray for West 26 mins – temp & 48 mins; E Mahood for Kenny ht; J Doyle for Cole 37 mins; E Menton for Wokocha 46 mins; F Sharpe for Sibanda 48 mins; L Corr for Campbell 60 mins.
Referee: H O'Reilly, Leinster Branch.
