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Try of the tournament Patrick Mallon, for St Michael's against St Mary's While Belvedere's opening and closing tries of their 380 win over Gonzaga were undoubtedly the highlights of a disappointing campaign for the holders . . . the first a fluent backline move to set up captain Paul O'Donoghue, the second a superb lob from Eoin O'Malley into the arms of Conor McGinn . . . they were both bettered by this complete team move from the eventual runners-up. Just in front of the line, Peter Hynes blocked down Neil Cowhey's clearance before offloading to Ian Leonard. He shifted the ball to Alex Byrne who then expertly passed out of a tackle for Mallon to touch down. Perfect signature for a fine attacking performance Moment of the tournament St Mary's late show against Castleknock Poor Castleknock. For the past three years, a deeply talented pool of players has been looked to as one of the principal challenges to the tournament's status quo. Each time, however, they have sold themselves short. Here, at least, they can console themselves with the fact that they were undone by something really special.
Four minutes into injurytime in this quarter-final, and they looked to have just done enough as they held out for a 10-5 win. Mary's out-half Cowhey was met with frustration as he had tried every possible route to try and break down the West Dublin school's defence. One avenue remained however and, bravely, he was not afraid of taking the risk. Pausing in front of the oncoming Castleknock pack he lifted a spectacular crossfield kick over their heads and into the arms of Conor McGlade. Taking the ball without breaking his stride, the centre evaded Niall O'Donoghue and David Stacey to cruelly touch down in front of the Castleknock fans for a dramatic winner.
Match of the tournament The "nal . . . St Michael's 12 Blackrock College 14 Bar that sensational late win for St Mary's and St Michael's grinding win against Clongowes, the 2006 Cup was characterised by a series of mostly one-sided games.
Largely mediocre in terms of the competitiveness of the games, it was crying out for an epic encounter. That chance, however, seemed to have gone as Belvedere wilted in the semi-finals. The final was subsequently expected to be a formality for Blackrock, and by half-time that looked like being borne out as they established a relatively comfortable 14-0 win.
However, Michael's delivered as they displayed the resolve that was lacking from last year's champions. A supremely disciplined performance, they chipped away and almost recorded the most dramatic of comebacks.
Sadly it wasn't to be, but as their coach Greg McWilliams said, his side . . . particularly Noel Reid . . . may not have won, but they truly achieved something special.
Player of the tournament Paul Ryan, Blackrock While much has been written about Blackrock's potentially stellar backline, their most consistently outstanding performer was the number eight.
The manner in which he led his forwards to dominate Belvedere's monster pack in the semi-final defined a brilliant tournament.
Disappointment of the tournament The failure of referees to demonstrably punish cynical play in the rucks left a sour taste, but ultimately it was the number of mismatches throughout the competition that deflated the excitement.
This, unexpectedly, was never so evident as in the semifinals, principally from the champions. Previewed as two engrossing and evenly matched encounters, Michael's had Mary's beaten by half-time while the true Belvedere simply didn't come out in a meek performance against Blackrock.
Player who least deserved to be on a losing team Brian Collins, for Castleknock against St Mary's While the timing of Castleknock's exit to Mary's was particularly cruel, the outstanding out-half must have felt it the most. Scoring all of his school's points with a converted try and penalty, the under-19 international played above even his own usual high standards and didn't make one wrong decision. Alas, his opposite number made the truly telling one.
Top scorers Aiden Wynne, Blackrock, 37 points; Noel Reid, St Michael's, 36 points; Martin Duf"cy, Belvedere, 21 points; Neil Cowhey, St Mary's, 20 points.
ROLL OF HONOUR Leinster Seniors Blackrock College Munster Seniors St Munchin's Ulster Seniors Methodist College Connacht Seniors Colaiste Iognaid;
Connacht Juniors Garbally College RESULTS Powerade Leinster Senior Cup final Blackrock College 14 (J Lee, S Cahill try each; A Wynne 2 cons) St Michael's 12 (N Reid 3 pens; A Cummiskey drp gl) Munster Senior Cup final St Munchin's 7 (K Earls try; G Slattery con) PCB 3 (J Power pen) Ulster Senior Cup finalMethodist College 11 (D Johnson try; O McMurray 2 pens) Campbell College 5 (R Boyd try) Connacht Senior Cup final Colaiste Iognaid 13 (R Hurley try; R Shaughnessy 2 pens, con) Sligo Grammar 10 (P Hunt try; S Gillespie drp gl, con) Connacht Junior Cup final Garbally College 20 Colaiste Iognaid 12 Leinster Schools Junior Cup semifinals Blackrock College 31 Castleknock 3; Gonzaga 5 Newbridge College 3 (replay) Munster Schools Junior Cup semifinal St Munchin's College 12 Crescent College 7; CBC Cork 17 Rockwell College 10 Fr Godfrey Cup semi-final High School 0 King's Hospital 0 Connacht Schools' Senior Plate quarter-final St Patrick's Tuam 34 Gort CS 3 Leinster Schools Section A Senior Shield final St Mac Dara's 8 CBS Kilkenny 6 Connacht Schools Junior Development Cup final Calasanctius Oranmore 23 Rice Westport 12
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YOU ARE HERE: 19 March 2007 / tribune.ie / 2006 / 03 / 19
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