PRESENTATION BROTHERS COLLEGE moved one clear of Christian Brothers College atop the Munster Senior Schools Cup standings after holding out for a 33-31 victory over their cross-city rivals in a classic all-Cork clash at Virgin Media Park on Tuesday.
Here are six of the standout performers from a thrilling encounter on whose progress Munster Rugby fans should keep an eye should they choose to pursue rugby in the coming years.
Gene O’Leary-Kareem
Pres captain Gene O’Leary-Kareem was the name on most fans’ lips on the way into Musgrave Park. An hour later, he had his finger to his lips as he turned to the Christians fans who had chastised him before he split the posts with a right-hand touchline conversion to give his side a 31-14 advantage.
Outside centre O’Leary-Kareem more than lived up to the billing, producing one of the great Senior Cup final performances in recent memory to lead his side to the promised land and pick up his second winners’ medal. He finished the game with a try, two wonderful assists, and four from five from the tee — a kicking percentage which ultimately proved decisive as the sides shared 10 tries.
O’Leary-Kareem opened the scoring in the second minute when he charged down Christians fullback Daire O’Callaghan and won the race to dot down, before nailing the conversion from a tight angle on the left.
Moments later, he brought the Pres fans to their feet again when he melted Christians out-half Charlie O’Shea in a tackle — one from which the young man in red did exceptionally well to recover and influence the game in his own right.
But O’Leary-Kareem’s most eye-catching contributions were those in which he exhibited his skills as a distributor.
His offload for John Wigginton-Barrett’s wonderful solo try approaching half-time was the epitome of his performance: he rode contact from three Christians defenders and popped the ball over the top of them to his rapid left wing, who did the rest.
Pres take the lead again with the two tries in a couple of minutes including this effort from John Wiggington Barrett.@pbcrugby 26 - 14 @CBC_rugby@ExaminerSport | @Pinergy | @Munsterrugby
— Irish Examiner Sport (@ExaminerSport) March 12, 2024
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“I adore that kid,” said Pres head coach Ger Burke of his skipper, who represented Ireland U18s and also captained the national U18s Sevens team last year.
“He’s just special. He’s a diamond, honestly. He’s just one-in-a-generation, like,” Burke added.
“He can do anything he wants leaving school. He has the personality for it.
“Ye saw it today in the final when it mattered the most but I’ve seen it for the last three years and I’ve seen it this year in particular. In parts of the year when we weren’t motoring, he was just on a different level of performance. It’s walk-the-walk leadership.
“We will see him on a bigger stage,” Burke assured.
James O’Leary
This was an extraordinary day for the extended O’Leary family as captain Gene O’Leary-Kareem and his first cousins — brothers James and Neville O’Leary — combined for 28 of Pres’ 33 points.
By the time the skipper had teed up the older of the two brothers, right winger Neville, for Pres’ fifth try, younger brother James had already left an indelible mark on the game.
Playing inside his cousin in Pres’ midfield, Fifth Year James O’Leary ran amok from 12, dominating the gainline and scoring two tries of his own.
His first was a steam-roll job as he smashed through three would-be tackles and did exceptionally well to keep his balance before steering Pres towards a 14-7 lead under the sticks. His second was a simpler finish from a range at which a man of his physique would be nigh-on impossible to stop, which is remarkable considering he still has another year of Senior Cup to play.
Big moment as PBC get back in front thanks to James O'Leary @pbcrugby 14 -7 @CBC_rugby@ExaminerSport | @Pinergy | @Munsterrugby
— Irish Examiner Sport (@ExaminerSport) March 12, 2024
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Indeed, O’Leary will next year chase a three-peat after also starring as a Fourth Year in Pres’ cup-winning campaign in 2023 — before going on to represent Cork in the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship last summer.
Summing up his effectiveness at Senior Schools level since he was just 16, Pres boss Ger Burke said of O’Leary: “We were on tour this year, we played RBAI up in Belfast. They said, ‘He’s back again?!’ We said, ‘Yeah — and next year!’ They were just like, ‘We’re sick of the sight of him.’
“He’s a frightening prospect.”
PBC centre’s were like someone dropped internationals into a school game.
— Cheasty (@dailychelsea4) March 12, 2024
John Wigginton-Barrett
St Finbarr’s and Cork GAA will hope they’re not watching another Ben O’Connor situation unfold in front of their eyes after inter-county minor hurler John Wigginton-Barrett lit up this oval-ball Munster final from the left wing.
Wigginton-Barrett also plays Gaelic football with The Barrs and is the grandson of late Leeside soccer legend Dave Wigginton, Cork Hibernians’ all-time top goalscorer.
The latest in his family’s sporting lineage relied on virtually none of his round-ball skills for his wonderful individual finish before half-time in this schools-rugby final. It was all about wheels as the fastest man on the pitch collected Gene O’Leary-Kareem’s exceptional offload inside his own half and rounded the bend for home, untouched.
Wigginton-Barrett remained a thorn in Christians’ side throughout the second half, too, and only a few scrambling hits prevented him from adding to his tally.
His raw speed is a commodity in any sport, and it will ultimately be up to the young man himself whether he decides to apply it to rugby, to GAA, to both, or to none when he finishes school later this year.
Michael Foy
The outstanding forward on the pitch, second row Foy put Christians on his back as they launched a second-half comeback attempt and he was unfortunate to come out on the wrong side of the result.
An Ireland U18 teammate of Gene O’Leary-Kareem’s, Christians’ vice captain put in a virtuoso display and was virtually unstoppable in his tight carries, particularly as CBC bashed their way towards the Pres line on several occasions in the final quarter.
Foy is an exceptional lineout operator for this age grade and thieved plenty of Pres ball as well as winning his own cleanly. He did the same in Christians’ semi-final against Crescent, where one of his interjections upon a put-in by the Limerick school yielded a try for hooker Darragh Prenter.
As was also the case in that semi-final, Foy put tremendous pressure on Pres’ exits in today’s decider.
A powerful force alongside his also-excellent second-row partner Conor Kennelly, who is an Ireland U19 international, Foy will be seen by an even bigger audience down the line if he continues on his current trajectory.
Charlie O’Shea
The image of Pres’ supporters streaming onto the field from the Dolphin End after his last-play conversion drifted wide left will be tough to square away but Charlie O’Shea will have another year to set the record straight.
It was sickening to see a game decided by a 17-year-old missing an already difficult kick in swirling wind, but O’Shea’s coaches, family and friends will be quick to remind him that CBC wouldn’t have gotten within an ass’s roar of levelling the game were it not for his superb all-round display in the second half.
Out-half O’Shea, who also started at 10 as a Fourth Year during Christians’ 2023 campaign, is an exceptionally gifted footballer who is yet to even develop his ‘man-strength’, but he grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck with his side 19 points down and dragged them to within a yard of forcing a replay.
Probably most impressive about his own second-half surge was that there had been plenty of moments earlier in the game — a missed touch, a kick out on the full, a skip-pass to right wing Alex O’Connell that fell foul of the wind — that could have buried him.
Instead, O’Shea only grew into proceedings: he was the catalyst for the blistering, pillar-to-post attack which led to the Conor Kennelly try that gave Christians a glimmer of hope. He absolutely nailed the same skip pass to Ronan O’Keeffe for the replacement wing’s first score, which took Christians to within seven with minutes remaining. And with the clock red, he found O’Keeffe again with a tidy cross-fielder to give himself the chance to level the game from out wide.
If he had the last one back, O’Shea might have allowed Christians to continue to attack narrow with their penalty advantage in the hopes of earning himself an easier conversion, but these are split-second decisions — and this is the very realm in which such young men are supposed to gain the experience to make the right call the next time.
And there will be a next time for Charlie O’Shea, who like James O’Leary will have a third Senior Cup season in 2025.
“He had his ups and downs but he kept going right to the end,” said a proud Christians head coach Tommy Crowe of his out-half. “We back him.
“Charlie can do anything. Charlie can literally do anything. He’s just a fabulous baller. He’s got a great understanding of the game. When Charlie clicks, everything can go right.”
Danny Rock
Like O’Shea, there were moments in this final that got away from Christians captain Danny Rock — most notably his second-half sin-binning for a high tackle — but the number eight has been outstanding across the last two Senior Cup campaigns.
It’s easy to see why head coach Crowe appointed Rock his captain for 2024: he’s among the most selfless players you could come across, showing little to no regard for his own body (so much so that this admirable quality would probably actually need to be refined if he was to one day step up to professional level).
Rock’s relatively lean frame belies his ferocity in the carry which, more often than not, sees him bounce lads to kingdom come.
He’s a vicious tackler, a strong lineout option from eight, and he knows where the paint is: Rock picked up in Sixth Year where left off in Fifth, scoring four tries in this year’s Senior Cup including the round-robin stage.
It’s a tough break for Rock to leave school on the back of successive final defeats to Pres but if he continues to play rugby after school, his dynamic talent is bound to catch the eye in new colours.
