League champions and cup favourites Marist Athlone were comfortable winners over Calasanctius College in yesterday’s Connacht Schools’ Senior Cup quarter-final at Oranmore.
Marist ran in three second-half tries to Calasanctius’ one late effort to progress to the semi-finals where they will meet either Rice College Westport or development cup runners-up Clifden.
Heavy underfoot conditions made expansive rugby difficult, but Marist would have been the happier at half-time. Having opened the scoring through Connacht schools’ outhalf Ben Carty after 16 minutes, they restricted their hosts, who enjoyed the wind advantage, to just three points through the boot of lively scrumhalf Kevin Finneran, who levelled in the 20th minute.
The Oranmore school proved gritty opponents, particularly up front and at the breakdown, but neither side threatened the try line despite carving opportunities.
Carty stroked his side ahead 10 minutes after the break and, with the wind at their backs, their tactical kicking caught the Oranmore backs on more than one occasion, providing the visitors with territorial control. It led directly to opening try when Irish schools’ player Robbie Henshaw finished off out wide, and eight minutes later Harry Hughes took advantage of a stretched defence to run in from 30 metres, with Carty converted in front of the posts.
When fullback Eoin O’Reilly added a third to stretch the lead to 23 - 3, there was no way back for the Oranmore school who had run Marist close last year. However, utilising their strength up front, the Calasanctius pack continued to drive forward and were rewarded with a deserved consolation try, which Finneran converted to narrow the gap to 23 - 10.
Calasanctius Oranmore: D Hennesy, M Kavanagh, N McLoughlin, P Hackett, S Neary, K Finneran, M Coyle, T Hoxford, P O’Donnell, D McArdle (cpt ), G Burke, L Folan, J Lardiner, A Officer, D O’Brien. Replacements, C Beirne, C Hansberry, T O’Reilly, M Donahue, S Carroll, R Steplaton, C Steedman.
Marist Athlone: E O’Reilly, H Hughes, R Henshaw (cpt ), R Sheridan, C Langdon, B Carty, R Reilly, B Teape, S Flanagan, S Meunargia, J Flynn, C White, D Lynch, B Cooper, J Cooper. Replacements, J Gormally, C McGrath, N Carr, Roert Ashe, G Costello, E Maher, S Dempsey.
Referee: Joe Doyne (Connacht ).
