Mountrath Community School 50 New Ross CBS 15
Leinster Junior School’s Rugby Semi Final
Mountrath Community School will go in search of Leinster Junior rugby glory this week when they contest the final against St Colmcille’s Community School in Meath.
They reached this stage following a stunning win on the road in Wexford last week.
The match kicked off and in the early stages, New Ross seemed to be coming out on top. They managed to keep MCS in their own half for the first 10 minutes. MCS held strong though, with some good defending, to keep New Ross from scoring.
MCS eventually turned over the ball and played some excellent free flowing rugby. They kept the pressure in New Ross’ 22 and eventually got in with flanker Zach Maguinness scoring in the corner. Out-half Daniel Whelan kicked a great conversion to give the Laois school a 7–0 lead.
From then, MCS’ confidence grew and they were gaining territory and applying more pressure to New Ross.
Some good ball handling managed to break the Wexford side’s defensive line once more and a great off-load near the try line enabled Number 8 Brody Gilligan to dive over the try line for a 2nd try. Dan Whelan kicked another super conversion.
Zach Maguinness got in again for his second and Mountrath’s third with Dan Whelan once again converting to make the score 21–0.
MSC missed a couple of scoring opportunities after that until centre Padraig Culleton, with some powerful running, beat four defenders to then score a fourth try.
Despite MCS’ dominance, New Ross didn’t give up and they managed to score themselves before the half was over to leave it 26–5 at half-time.
New Ross added a second try when play resumed and it was nip and tuck for a while before Zach Maguinness managed to break through for his hat-trick.
Some more good play by MCS led to another great score thanks to the forwards working hard to help drive Brody Gilligan over the line for his second try of the match.
New Ross responded with their third try but the excellent Dan Whelan made a burst beating four defenders and scoring his first try of the match – he converted again.
MCS weren’t finished there though, and another break away try by Zach Maguinness led to to final score of the match – converted comprehensively again by Dan Whelan,
A great team performance all around and best of luck to all in the final in Donnybrook on Thursday at 12pm.
MOUNTRATH COMMUNITY SCHOOL: David Allely, Eugene Boleyko, Donnchadh Carroll, Joe Carroll, Stephen Conroy, Daniel Cuddy, Fionn Cuddy, Padraig Culleton, Brody Gilligan, Brian Hogan, David Hynes, Jack Keane, Zach McGuinness, Darragh Maher, Adam McCabe, Kyle Moore, Hugo Neville, Dylan O’Brien, Ryan O’Connor, David Olaseni, Cormac Page, Alex Phelan, Jamie Phelan, Maciej Raczynski, Conor Ryan, Daniel Whelan
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