Clongowes Wood's unity of purpose blew away the challenge of Presentation College Bray in this Leinster Schools' Senior Cup second-round tie at Donnybrook yesterday.
While their pre-season form would seem to suggest that this is not a vintage Clongowes year, they have a knack for putting things right in time for the cup campaign. This year promises to be no different and Presentation found this out to their cost. Clongowes have in number eight Des Dillon and full-back Gordon D'Arcy two figures of special talent and surrounding them are players that do the basic things well and appear to know their own limitations. For all that, Presentation made the better start and prop Brian Murphy landed a fifth-minute penalty. However, any thoughts of an upset were quickly put to rest when Clongowes began to open up the Bray defence. Scrum-half Owen Brady eventually made the breakthrough which was inevitable following a bout of pressure. This try, converted by D'Arcy, came in the 27th minute and it preceded a rampant display by the pack.
The impressive inter-play between forwards and backs was fused together as the game wore on. Unconverted tries from centre Henry Bourke and Brady were sufficient to send Clongowes to the break with a healthy 17-3 lead. Thereafter, they simply gorged themselves on possession and put together a quartet of second half tries from Bourke, D'Arcy (2) and hooker Gavin Ryan, of which D'Arcy converted three. For Presentation this was an ignominious exit at their first hurdle. But, perhaps, they were saved further embarrassment by going out in such an early stage. As is the way, their commitment was unquestionable, but their application of the basic skills was unconvincing. They did what they could in the face of superior opposition and can be commended for this.
The Clongowes supporters pointed to their possible next opponents with cries of "Are you watching Blackrock" and if indeed they were watching, they would have been impressed by Clongowes' all-round execution.
CLONGOWES WOOD: G D'Arcy; G Hayes, R McEneaney, H Bourke, J Smyth; R O'ConnorNash, O Brady; N O'Connor, G Ryan, A Kelly, A Proctor, D Lennon, W Wallace, D Kelly, D Dillon. Replacements: L Manning for A Kelly (32 mins), J O'Donohue for O'Connor (61 mins), C Devine for Hayes (63 mins), M Brides for Smyth (68 mins).
PRESENTATION BRAY: C Monaghan: B Cadyre, R Spillane, N McCarthy, C Walsh; A Toner, G Murray; B Murphy, K O'Keeffe, S Kennedy, R Lyons, M Harnett, G Fallon, S Flynn, D Flynn. Replacements: S Hickey for Monahan (35 mins), R Connolly for Kennedy (40 mins), D Kiely for Harnett (52 mins).
Referee: T Duncan (ARLB).
Bath will not pay nearly £500,000 to sign Welsh captain Robert Howley. Bath head coach Andy Robinson would not confirm or deny the club's reported interest in Cardiff's 27-year-old Lions scrum-half. But Robinson did say: "There's no way we will pay that sort of money for one player."
