Leinster Schools' Senior Cup / St Michael's 33 Pres Bray 19: This could so easily have gone horribly wrong for St Michael's College. Although leading throughout the seven-try affair, there were moments yesterday when the result hinged on a knife edge.
In the end they saw-off an abrasive, hard-working Presentation College, Bray, due to the extra facets of quality in their backline.
It must be pointed out the majority of breaks went with the Dublin 4 school. In particular, the loss of fullback Seán Quinn to injury after 31 minutes denied Pres an effective counter-attacking tool. It also encouraged St Michael's to continue employing a kicking game.
Still, they deserved the victory having led 10-0, 16-7 and 23-12 at different periods, but the sheer persistence of a Pres pack led by ferocious backrowers Jason Harris-Wright and John Downey denied them a comfortable afternoon.
Nine minutes in, the St Michael's pressure game had yielded two tries in either corner. The first came after Rajan Reilly blocked an attempted clearance from outhalf Roddy Carroll. The ball bounced kindly for the openside and St Michael's were away.
Three minutes later a Michael Twomey break resulted in Conor Cleary sending outhalf Andrew Cummiskey clear. Right wing Noel Reid missed two difficult conversions.
From the restart, Pres made it clear they were not going to roll over. After wrestling possession Leon Browne and Richie Mooney were both held up but before St Michael's could reorganise their defence a switch in play to the far wing saw Quinn put Ken Doherty in for the try. Browne added a difficult conversion.
Cummiskey did widen the deficit with a clever drop goal, when no other attacking opportunity presented itself, and Reid also found his range with a straight forward penalty to give St Michael's a 16-7 interval lead.
Many of this Pres side have the experience of reaching the junior final in 2004 so they had no intention of caving in. Three minutes into the second half it was a four-point game when a Harris-Wright pass saw Downey carry two defenders over the line.
St Michael's remained in the comfort zone thanks to scrumhalf Robert Shanley's clever blindside pass to Patrick Brophy. The winger still had to beat replacement fullback Peter Walsh but a classy sidestep took care of that. A Reid conversion made it 23-12.
However, Carroll directed Pres downfield with a Walsh try atoning for the missed tackle. Again, it was Harris-Wright, while drawing three tacklers, who delivered the perfect offload.
The endeavour of chasing the early 10-point deficit eventually proved too much for the Wicklow school as Twomey gathered a midfield chip to cross for the seventh try of the afternoon. Reid converted and added a late penalty after Cummiskey was high tackled.
Scoring sequence: 6 mins: R Reilly try, 5-0; 9 mins: A Cummiskey try, 10-0; 11 mins: K Doherty try, 10-5; L Browne conv, 10-7; 16 mins: A Cummiskey drp gl, 13-7; 26 mins: N Reid pen, 16-7. Half-time. 38 mins: J Downey try, 16-12; 44 mins: P Brophy try, 21-12; N Reid conv, 23-12; 51 mins: P Walsh try, 23-17; R Carroll conv, 23-19; 63 mins: M Twomey try, 28-19; N Reid conv, 30-19; 75 mins A Reid pen, 33-19.
ST MICHAEL'S COLLEGE: M Twomey; N Reid, C Cleary, N Reynolds, P Brophy; A Cummiskey, R Shanley; I Leonard, P Hynes, A Pollard; A Byrne, K McKenna; P Mallon, R Reilly, T McKillen (capt). Replacements: M Kelly for I Leonard (53 mins).
PRESENTATION COLLEGE, BRAY: S Quinn; T Corr, L Browne, K Grace, K Doherty; R Carroll, P Barry; R Mooney, R O'Sullivan, B Carlin; R Breslin, M Noone; J Downey, A Lewis (capt), J Harris-Wright. Replacements: P Walsh for S Quinn (inj, 31 mins), P Cunningham for P Walsh (inj, 53 mins).
Referee: D Keane (ARLB).
