Leinster Junior Cup semi-final / Blackrock College 37 CBC Monkstown 0: An emphatic second-half display from the defending champions left CBC Monkstown devoid of a response in yesterday's Leinster Schools Junior Cup semi-final at Donnybrook.
Blackrock are one game away from completing their first Junior and Senior Cup double since 1995 and their 20th in total.
They seemed to take up where their senior counterparts left off on Sunday. They have a powerful, yet mobile pack and a back line that purrs along under the guidance of outhalf Ian Madigan, who kicked a penalty, two conversions and even crossed for the fifth of six tries.
With Robert Smith excellent out of touch and Colm McCarthy delivering some crunching tackles, the absence of captain Shane Rogers - on the bench because of illness - was hardly noticed.
Simon Matthews also gave a superb cameo. The winger came into the fray at half-time before retiring in the 47th minute. In that short period he grabbed two fine tries. The first was a gamble as he ignored the overlap outside and rode two tackles to make the line. The second came after good acceleration to the corner.
The scoring only began after the interval as CBC's Conor Banahan had missed two penalties early on. The talented outhalf was denied the opportunity to show his full range of skills because of the attention of the Blackrock back row.
Tactically not much changed after the break, Blackrock were actually weakened by the loss of prop James Leyden to suspected concussion. Everything just seemed to click. They had the beating of their opponents out wide so it was just a matter of executing the delivery.
The first try came after 33 minutes when Niall Morris shot up the short side before sending winger David Sherry over. The next 10 minutes belonged to Matthews, with Madigan adding a penalty and conversion to leave the score at 20-0 with a quarter of the contest to play.
Blackrock would have been forgiven for going into their shell. Instead, they laid down a statement of intent to Pres Bray, their opponents in Sunday's final, by running in three further tries, from Darragh Fitzpatrick, Madigan and McCarthy. They had two more disallowed for forward passes. The sixth try, wide on the right, was scored by McCarthy after ShaneRogers, thrown in for the final quarter, supplied the key pass.
CBC looked like getting a consolation try near full-time but a tackle from Morris ended a James Clarke break. Defensively sound and devastating in attack, it's difficult to see Blackrock being denied the clean sweep of honours this year.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 34 mins: D Sherry try, 5-0; 39: S Matthews try, 10-0; I Madigan conv, 12-0; 42: Madigan pen, 15-0; 44: Matthews try, 20-0; 48: D Fitzpatrick try, 25-0; Madigan conv, 27-0; 51: Madigan try, 32-0; 57: C McCarthy try, 37-0.
BLACKROCK COLLEGE: N Morris; R Johnson, D Fitzpatrick, J Ronan; D Sherry, I Madigan (capt); J Leyden, M O'Brien, K Cahill; R Quigley, R Ronayne; C McCarthy, R Smith, P McCormack. Replacements: D Tunney for Leyden (34 mins); S Matthews for Johnson (half-time); S Rogers for Matthews (47 mins); C Byrne for Quigley, D Hillery for Ronayne (both 51 mins); L Carroll for Smith (57 mins).
CBC MONKSTOWN: S O'Brien; D Finnegan, G Foley, B Dorgan, J Clarke; C Banahan, A Quinn; N Linnane, K Verso, D Steyaert; A Baylis, S Grannell; M Connolly, J Rogers, C O'Raghallaigh (capt). Replacements: K Finlay-Mulligan for Linnane (35 mins); K Nolan for Connolly, D Kennedy for Baylis, C Spillane for O'Brien (all 45 mins); R Fayne for Finnegan (54).
Referee: R Doyle (ARLB).
