Leinster Colleges 44 Ulster Colleges 24:LEINSTER COLLEGES continued their domination of the interprovincial series but not before Ulster had posed a few questions in this decider played at Sydney Park yesterday. But with the Leinster pack signalling their intent in the second half at Monkstown RFC grounds, the home side, under coach Eoin Hogan, prevailed to capture a third successive title.
Ulster began brightly with Josh Devitt touching down beside the posts barely a minute into the game. But Leinster were soon back in contention with former schools outhalf Brian Hogan finding the distance on three occasions before a break by Conor Hogan set up Craig Morrin for Leinster's opening try on 26 minutes.
Leinster crossed the Ulster line once more before the break through Laurcan Kavanagh to lead 19-5 only for Ulster to knock them back with back-to-back tries from Mark O'Connor and Ali Burch. But with Collins restoring Leinster's lead with his fourth penalty on 52 minutes, the tide turned once more and, having threatened the Ulster line in successive moves, Leinster went over for what proved the decisive score when the impressive Ian Leonard powered his way over just short of the hour mark.
The floodgates opened with further tries from Hogan and Max-Rantz McDonald and although Ulster were to end their dry spell with a score from Andrew Ferguson, Leinster completed the scoring with a try from Barry McLoughlin.
LEINSTER COLLEGES: M Geraghty, C Hogan, C Morrin, L Kavanagh, D Fanning, B Collins, S Treacy, I Leonard, C Culleton, M Hamilton, N Lawless, R Smith, J Downey, E Nihill, J Dever. Replacements: D O'Shea for Treacy, J Gorman for C Culleton, D Toman for Nihill, B McLoughlin for Collins, M Rantz-McDonald for Morrin, G Miller for R Smith.
ULSTER COLLEGES: D McIlwaine, J Devitt, D Funston, P Elliott, A Smyth, M O' Connor, A Semple, A Ferguson, M Bradford, N Simpson, M Dunleavy, A Kerr, M Irvine, A Cupples, A Birch. Replacements: A Whitten for Bradford, S Morton for Ferguson, M Riddell for Dunleavy, J Brown for Semple, S Browne for Smyth, R McCarthy for Elliott
Referee: D Keane (IRFU).
