Rockwell College 28
Crescent College Comprehensive 5
Eamon Hogan reports from Markets Field
IMPRESSIVE ROCKWELL COLLEGE powered their way into the semi-finals of the Munster Schools Senior Cup after recording a commanding 28-5 victory over Crescent College Comprehensive at the Markets Field this Wednesday.
Ruthless Rockwell outscored their rivals by four tries to one to set up a semi-final showdown with champions CBC Cork at Irish Independent Park on Tuesday, 25 February.
The Tipperary side’s form has showed real signs of improvement since Christmas and their convincing win over Crescent was their third success since the start of the knock-out phase of the Senior Cup.
Rockwell hit the front on 15 minutes when their impressive captain Alan Flannery, younger brother of Ireland U20 Grand Slam-winning out-half Jake, struck for a superb individual try, beating a host of Crescent defenders in a 40-metre dash to score.
Out-half John O’Sullivan duly added the conversion for 7-0.
To their credit, Crescent hit back strongly and replacement David Murphy finished off an excellent move to score in the right corner and reduce Rockwell’s half-time lead to just two points, 7-5.
Crescent’s cause in that opening half had not been helped by a couple of injuries to key players, including captain Barry Scott.
After the Limerick side lost a player to the sin-bin 12 minutes into the second half, Rockwell struck for their second try of the game through powerful centre Sam Tarleton who ran 40 metres before touching down. O’Sullivan also added the conversion to make it 14-5.
That score really energised Rockwell who bagged their third try soon afterwards despite Crescent being back to their full complement of players.
This time it was ever-threatening full-back Joshua O’Dwyer who rounded off an excellent move to score.
The hugely influential O’Sullivan converted and he also added the extras to his own try in added time as Rockwell eased clear in the final quarter.
Scorers for Rockwell College
Tries: Alan Flannery, Sam Tarleton, Joshua O’Dwyer, John O’Sullivan
Conversions: John O’Sullivan 4
Scorers for Crescent College Comprehensive
Try: David Murphy
ROCKWELL COLLEGE: Joshua O’Dwyer; Peter Wall, Sam Tarleton, Alan Flannery, Tom Tobin; John O’Sullivan, Adam Maher; Dylan Foley, Dean Fanning, Matthew Burke; Luke Fogarty, Brian O’Dea; Cathal Kelly, Richard Anglim, Liam Shine.
Replacements used: Kevin Grogan.
CRESCENT COLLEGE COMPREHENSIVE: Ben Cosgrove; Darragh O’Shea, Darragh Casserly, David Rickard, Tony O’Sullivan; Ben Davey, Jamie Duggan; Ethan O’Sullivan, Joseph Rickard, Ben O’Sullivan; David Doyle, Sean Malone; James McKeogh, Patrick Dolphin, Barry Scott.
Replacements used: Conal Henchy, Eoghan Quinn, Glen Kelly, David Murphy.
Referee: Tommy O’Donoghue (MAR)