Energia All-Ireland League men’s divisions/Energia Junior Cup round-up
MAX ABBOTT’S 79TH-MINUTE maul score gave Cork Constitution a share of the spoils at the end of a thrilling 10-try clash with Dublin University at College Park.
Con captain Aidan Moynihan added the all-important conversion for a 35-all draw, with the visitors having led on three occasions and Trinity twice, including 21-14 at the interval.
The result of this rescheduled Energia All-Ireland League match means the students and Con remain third and fourth respectively in Division 1A, level on 32 points ahead of next week’s return fixture at Temple Hill.
Number 8 David Hyland slipped through to take Con back into the Trinity 22 during the dying embers, but a handling error cost them and then a potential breakout by Trinity winger James Dillon was pulled back for a knock-on.
Wearing their red and black hooped jerseys, Tony Smeeth’s youngsters fell behind to an early James Murphy try, the burly flanker driving over with Sean Duffy on the latch.
Scrum half Ian Leonard had made a sniping break in the lead up to the eighth-minute score, which Moynihan converted, but Trinity, roaring back with a pacy break initiated by Aran Egan and Ronan Quinn, were quick to respond.
A series of phases in the Con 22 chipped away at the defence before the hosts’ captain Louis O’Reilly put Quinn raiding over from the left wing. Egan converted neatly to take his season’s haul to 102 points.
It remained seven points each until a scoring blitz towards the end of the first half. Con’s lineout had malfunctioned in advanced positions and they also had a maul grounded and lost possession from a strong scrum platform.
A Trinity tight five missing some notable names due to provincial and Ireland Under-20 commitments came under further pressure. George Coomber jinked through and narrowly missed out on a try, Ian Leonard likewise after some lovely interplay between Coomber, Murphy and Mark Stafford.
They did eventually retake the lead when blindside Stafford burst clean through from a ruck to score from the edge of the hosts’ 22. Moynihan converted from straight in front to make it 14-7.
However, Smeeth’s charges stunned Con with two late tries, big tighthead Thomas Connolly swatting away a tackle to score from close range before out-half Egan added a terrific solo effort on the stroke of half-time.
Using scrum ball to break from halfway, the Limerick native dummied his way through a gap and then sidestepped around Michael Hand, his pace taking him over in the left corner despite Leonard’s committed chase.
Egan’s crisp touchline conversion gave his side a seven-point lead at the turnaround, only for Jonny Holland’s men to hit back with two converted tries inside seven minutes of the restart.
Billy Crowley, brother of Munster and Ireland’s Jack, was released by Moynihan and Harry O’Riordan from 40 metres out, capitalising on a couple of mismatches to surge through a gap and he rounded Colm Hogan with aplomb for a fine levelling try – 21-all.
Barely five minutes later, Murphy stretched over for Con’s bonus point score, Niall Kenneally’s initial run doing the damage and his excellent offload, combined with another from the supporting Crowley, put the flanker in under the posts.
The tries kept coming, the increasingly influential Hogan releasing Dillon to cut in off his right wing, accelerate past three defenders and register Trinity’s bonus point. Egan added the extras to leave it 28-all.
Quinn threatened from a kick through as the end-to-end action continued, and Trinity were stopped twice from tapped penalties before Ruadhan Byron was held up by a combination of Stafford and replacement Alessandro Heaney.
With 15 minutes remaining, O’Reilly edged Trinity back in front. He broke from a maul, stealing a march on Abbott and showing good strength to get the ball down despite the best efforts of Louis Kahn.
Matthew Bowen, a late call-up to the Con squad, then had a try ruled out for a forward pass from Moynihan, but their persistence paid off when Abbott’s leveller earned them a valuable three points on the road.
Ballynahinch pushed eight points clear of seventh-placed UCD in the table after beating College 31-25 in an eight-try encounter at Ballymacarn Park.
‘Hinch’s strong scrum forced penalty tries in the 52nd and 76th minutes, the first one coming after UCD flanker Oisin Spain had been sin-binned.
Nacho Cladera Crespo returned to his loosehead position to help the hosts outscrummage the students, with their earlier scores having come from Bradley Luney and Kyle McCall.
Nice hands from Harry Donnelly and captain Bobby Sheehan released UCD scrum half Michael Moloney for an immediate response, closing the gap to 24-18, and the visitors nipped back in front in the 63rd minute.
Following a bout of forward pressure, Moloney fed replacement Ross Deegan to crash in under the posts, the conversion from Niall Carroll making it 25-24 to Kevin Croke’s young guns.
Nonetheless, UCD, who had first half tries from Dylan O’Grady and Donnelly, lost their grip on the lead when Kyle McCall, Claytan Milligan and John Dickson combined to do the damage in the front row and earn the decisive penalty try.
It took some frantic late defence from ‘Hinch, on their own line, to prevent UCD from scoring right at the death. They lost openside Zack McCall to the bin, but a bandaged-up Mark Best dug in at the breakdown to win the penalty that sealed it.
Meanwhile, in Division 1B, Evin Crummie’s 84th-minute try saw City Armagh prevail 13-11 at Ulster rivals Malone, and Old Wesley and Highfield both recorded bonus point victories away from home.
Prop Cronan Gleeson was the player-of-the-match as six-try Wesley won 36-26 at Banbridge. Out-half James Taylor scored a try and kicked nine points in Highfield’s impressive 34-14 triumph over St. Mary’s College.
For the second season running, the Energia Junior Cup final will be an all-Ulster affair after Enniskillen and reigning champions Clogher Valley won through to the decider.
Clogher Valley squeezed past Newcastle West on a 18-17 scoreline in a tight semi-final at Cullinagh. Thirteen of those points came during a wind-assisted first half when their scrum earned a late penalty try to add to two David Maxwell penalties.
Ger Earls’ men missed out on a try when Sean Murphy was held up, and Paul Armstrong’s break and kick through eventually ended with Michael Bothwell claiming the Valley’s second try.
Fittingly, given the thundery weather, Newcastle West stormed back with Keelan Headd barging over the whitewash, the conversion and a subsequent penalty from Shane Airey making it an eight-point game.
The Limerick club’s maul wore down the visitors’ defence late on, the next few phases leading to replacement Evan O’Donovan driving low over the line. Airey’s straightforward conversion left just a single point between them.
The home crowd sensed an upset, but Newcastle West fell agonisingly short. Full-back Sean Herlihy helped to gain a penalty opportunity, yet his strike from the 10-metre line, in difficult conditions, slid narrowly wide.
Meeting the Valley in the January 28 final will be Enniskillen who have reached this stage for the first time. They got the better of Monkstown, winning 24-8 at Mullaghmeen where number 8 Michael Rooney scored two first half tries.
Fraser Wright touched down from Charlie McMickan’s cross-field kick to nudge the Dubliners in front, and they were only 12-8 behind at the break.
Turning around with the wind at their backs, the Fermanagh outfit controlled much of the second half and reliable out-half Eddie Keys knocked over four penalties to secure their passage through.
DIVISION 1A
BALLYNAHINCH 31 UCD 25, Ballymacarn Park
Scorers for Ballynahinch: Tries: Bradley Luney, Kyle McCall, 2 Penalty tries; Cons: Greg Hutley 2; Pen: Greg Hutley
Scorers for UCD: Tries: Michael Moloney, Ross Deegan, Dylan O’Grady, Harry Donnelly; Con: Niall Carroll; Pen: Tim Corkery
BALLYNAHINCH: Rory Butler; Fergus Jemphrey, George Pringle, Mark Best, Aaron Cairns; Greg Hutley, Conor McAuley; Nacho Cladera Crespo, Claytan Milligan, Kyle McCall, James Simpson, Tom Martin, Bradly Luney, Zack McCall, Jamie Macartney.
Replacements: Conor Piper, John Dickson, Kyle Gill, Chris Gibson, Ryan Wilson, Oscar Yandell.
UCD: Niall Carroll; Alex O’Grady, Harry Donnelly, Tim Corkery, Dylan O’Grady; James Tarrant, Michael Moloney; Chris Hennessy, Bobby Sheehan (capt), Rory McGuire, Martin Fallon, Gerry Hill, Joe Cronin, Oisin Spain, Bill Burns.
Replacements: Rob Harvey, Hugo O’Malley, Ryan McMahon, Lorcan Fallon, Thomas Quinn, Ross Deegan.
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY 35 CORK CONSTITUTION 35, College Park
Scorers for Dublin University: Tries: Ronan Quinn, Thomas Connolly, Aran Egan, James Dillon, Louis O’Reilly; Cons: Aran Egan 5
Scorers for Cork Constitution: Tries: James Murphy 2, Mark Stafford, Billy Crowley, Max Abbott; Cons: Aidan Moynihan 5
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY: Colm Hogan; James Dillon, Louis McDonough, Gavin Jones, Ronan Quinn; Aran Egan, Louis O’Reilly (capt); Jerry Cahir, Mark Nicholson, Thomas Connolly, Jack Kearney, Dan Barron, Anthony Ryan, Sean McCrohan, Ruadhan Byron.
Replacements: Zach Baird, Bart Vermeulen, Max Dunne, Cormac King, Liam McMahon, Hugh O’Kennedy.
CORK CONSTITUTION: George Coomber; Michael Hand, Harry O’Riordan, Niall Kenneally, Billy Crowley; Aidan Moynihan (capt), Ian Leonard; Brendan Quinlan, Billy Scannell, Luke Masters, Sean Duffy, Cathal O’Flaherty, Mark Stafford, James Murphy, David Hyland.
Replacements: Max Abbott, Alessandro Heaney, Andrew Treacy, Matisse Lamarque d’Arrouzat, Louis Kahn, Matthew Bowen.
DIVISION 1B
BANBRIDGE 26 OLD WESLEY 36, Rifle Park
Scorers for Banbridge: Tries: Robin Sinton, Ross Cartmill, Penalty try, Peter Cromie; Cons: Rob Lyttle 2, Pen try con
BANBRIDGE: Rob Lyttle, Ross Cartmill, Josh Cromie, Ben Carson, Conor Field; Ian Porter, Neil Kilpatrick; Callum Reid, Peter Cromie (capt), Michael Cromie, Martin Vorster, Alex Thompson, David McCann, Dale Carson, Robin Sinton.
Replacements: Arthur Allen, Josh Chambers, Christian Trimble, Alex Weir, Lewis Nelmes, Jamie Mullan.
OLD WESLEY: Alex Molloy; Nathan Randles, James O’Donovan, Eoin Deegan, David Poff; Ian Cassidy, Keith Kavanagh; Harry Noonan, Howard Noonan, Cronan Gleeson, David Moyter, Iain McGann (capt), Will Fay, Josh O’Hare, Sam Pim.
Replacements: Dom Maclean, Sam Kenny, Rob Loftus, Brian Short, Josh Miller, Tommy O’Callaghan.
MALONE 11 CITY OF ARMAGH 13, Gibson Park
Scorers for Malone: Try: Declan Moore; Pens: Rory Campbell 2
Scorers for City of Armagh: Tries: Peter Lamb, Evin Crummie; Pen: Ryan Purvis
MALONE: Andy Bryans; Rory Campbell, Jack McMurtry, Nathan Brown, David McMaster; Shane Kelly, Zach Shore; Ben Halliday, Dan Kerr, Ricky Greenwood, Adam McNamee, Cory Tipping, Daryl Maxwell, Dave Cave (capt), Neill Alcorn.
Replacements: Sam Green, Lawson Porter, James McAlister, Zach Devine, Ryan Lindsay, Ben Gibson.
CITY OF ARMAGH: Ryan Purvis; Andrew Willis, Matthew Hooks, Tim McNiece (capt), Sam Cunningham; Evin Crummie, Jack Hughes; Dylan Poyntz, Peter Lamb, Philip Fletcher, Josh McKinley, John Glasgow, Nigel Simpson, Ryan O’Neill, Neil Faloon.
Replacements: Sam Anderson, Paul Mullen, James Crummie, Jack Treanor, David Agnew, Glen Faloon.
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE 14 HIGHFIELD 34, Templeville Road
Scorers for St. Mary’s College: Tries: Hugo Conway 2; Cons: Mick O’Gara 2
Scorers for Highfield: Tries: James Taylor, Sean French, Richard Cassidy, Cian Bohane, Colin O’Neill; Cons: James Taylor 3; Pen: James Taylor
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE: Mark Fogarty; Hugo Conway, Ryan O’Loughlin, Mick O’Gara, Hugh Lane; Aaron O’Neill, Andrew Walsh; Adam Mulvihill, Steven O’Brien, Jack Reidy Walsh, Peter Starrett, Daniel Leane, Niall Hurley, Ethan Baxter, Ronan Watters (capt).
Replacements: Richie Halpin, Padraig Dundon, Harry MacDonald, Max Svejdar, Senan Phelan, Liam Corcoran.
HIGHFIELD: Cian Bohane; Ben Murphy, Liam McCarthy, Mark Dorgan, Luke Kingston; James Taylor, Richard Cassidy; Cillian Buckley, Travis Coomey, James French, John O’Callaghan, Sean Garrett, Mark Fitzgibbon, Amhlaoibh Porter, Miah Cronin (capt).
Replacements: Robert Murphy, Ian McCarthy, Aidan Keane, Eoin Keating, Dave O’Sullivan, Colin O’Neill.
DIVISION 2A
- Ballymena 12 Queen’s University 26, Eaton Park
- Cashel 17 Blackrock College 17, Spafield
- Nenagh Ormond 31 Navan 15, New Ormond Park
- UL Bohemians 20 MU Barnhall 17, UL 4G pitch
DIVISION 2B
- Belfast Harlequins 19 Malahide 19, Deramore Park
- Dungannon 19 Rainey Old Boys 21, Stevenson Park
DIVISION 2C
- Tullamore 22 Ballina 15, Spollanstown
- Mudleton 20 Bruff 24, Towns Park
ENERGIA ALL-IRELAND JUNIOR CUP SEMI-FINALS: Saturday, January 7
- Newcastle West 17 Clogher Valley 18, Cullinagh
- Enniskillen 24 Monkstown 8, Mullaghmeen