Terenure 10 Casteknock 6 It took centre Adam La Grue's penalty to put this to bed as Terenure came through a cracking quarter-final at Donnybrook.
Initially, Terenure had all the ball but the longer the half went on, the stronger Castleknock’s defence grew with captain Adam Corcoran outstanding.
In fact, they slipped in front from secondrow Danny Waldron’s penalty on the half-time whistle and Waldron then made it 6-0 in the 33rd minute. It was a long way back from there given the intensity of Castleknock’s defence.
The comeback began with a sweet pass from Sam Dardis inside his 22, a speedy exit by Luke Murnaghan, his chip over the top and centre Adam La Grue's collection on the other side to sprint clear.
The game was then on a knife edge. Castleknock were still on the front-foot but the temptation to push the play from deep was too great and they got caught out under their posts for La Grue to kick Terenure into the semi-final.
TERENURE: S Dardis; L Murnaghan, A La Grue, J Walsh, J Nolan; D Henry-Hayes, M O'Shea; L Vaughan, B Bruce, M Hasegawa; C Somerville (capt), R McGrath; B Vaughan, L Grady, P Heneghan. Replacements: J Boland for Hasegawa, S Kirwan for Bruce (both 46 mins); R McInnes for Walsh, A Kelly for McGrath (both 51 mins). CASTLEKNOCK: J McDonagh; L McMenamin, M Leahy, J McGaley, S Mansfield; C Egenton, J Wallace; E Reilly, K Jones, D Sinclair-McCabe; M Mellett, D Waldron; K Ronan, A Corcoran (capt), C Clancy. Replacements: A Doherty for Leahy (34 mins); M Holton for Reilly (57 mins). Referee: A Fogarty (Leinster Branch)