Galwegians, for the fourth year in succession, have secured an AIB Cup quarter-final berth following a comfortable 29 - 16 victory over UCD in Dublin on Saturday.
Galwegians side will now face division 1A outfit Dolphin in Cork on November 21 with hopes of advancing to a second semi-final for the second time in the cup’s history.
UCD started the brighter, dominating the breakdown and creating several chances, but all they had to show for their early efforts was a penalty.
Instead Galwegians made better use of their chances and their superior maul provided the platform for their opening try by No 8 Ambrose Conboy. The lead was extended when good hands from Mark Butler supplied John Cleary who crossed for try no 2, which Butler converted for a 12 - 3 lead.
As the Galwegians’ pack continued to apply the pressure, Butler added a penalty, but the students narrowed the gap with a penalty on the stroke of half time, and a third after the break.
However once again errors proved costly for the students, and Galwegians took full advantage. A stray pass was intercepted by Butler, and although just caught by the scrambling defence, centre Dave Clarke was on hand to finish for a third try, which Cleary converted for a 22-9 advantage.
UCD proved dogged and were finally rewarded with a converted try to narrow the deficit to 22 - 16, to set up an expected exciting final 15 minutes. However the hosts’ lack of experience proved costly when a chip ahead out of defence was intercepted by Cleary who easily outpaced the defence to score his second try of the game near the posts, which he converted to make it 29-16.
GALWEGIANS: T O’Halloran; B Lee, A Esera, D Clarke, J Cleary; M Butler, R Dillon; J Naughton, C Muldoon, J Stephens (sub S McGrath ), J Moran (sub D Boyd ), B McClearn, L Scahill, I Muldoon (capt ), A Conboy.
