Árdscoil Rís suffer dramatic defeat to Clonakilty in Munster Schools Boys Junior Cup

ÁRDSCOIL Rís bowed out of the Munster Schools Boys Junior Cup following a dramatic 26-22 defeat to Clonakilty Community College at Thomond Park on Wednesday afternoon.

The North Circular Road school were eight points ahead heading into the final stages, but conceded two tries late on to lose in dramatic fashion.

Ardscoil had taken an early lead when Colin McNamara took advantage of an error in the Clonakilty defence and scored the opening try following Charles Casey’s cross-field kick.

McNamara bagged his second of the afternoon on 14 minutes with a scintillating run in from 40 metres that saw the full-back beat three Clonakilty defenders before touching down in the right corner.

Clonakilty got on the board just before the half time whistle thanks to a Joe Twomey score after slick hands from their backs. Daniel Donovan nailed the touchline conversion to make it a three-point game at half time – Ardscoil leading 10-7.

Ardscoil added to their lead in the early stages of the second half with Leo Carman powering over after taking the ball from the back of a scrum 10 metres from the Clonakilty line.

Twomey responded for Clonakilty with his second score of the game and Donovan’s conversion made it a three-point game yet again.

Ardscoil added a third try on 53 minutes when another Casey cross-field kick gave Gavin O’Brien time and space to collect the ball and go in under the posts. Casey’s conversion made it a 22-14 lead for Ardscoil.

However, there was a sting in the Clonakilty tail. Evan Knowles got their third try, that Donovan converted and then Joe Coleman got the winning try with the last play of the game.

ÁRDSCOIL RÍS: Colin McNamara; Jed Robinson, Rory Stack, Killian O’Neill, Gavin O’Brien; Charlie Carey, Darragh Kirwan; Sam Golden, Shane Curtin, James Boyce; Tadhg Hannon, David Moran; Harry Mullen, Joe Daly, Leo Carman. Replacements: Tommy Byrnes, Daniel Connolly, Cathal McKenna, George Roberts, Fiach Brown, Shay Nolan, Gavin O’Mahony, Chris Barry, JJ Barry, Alex Galligan. 

CLONAKILTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE: Joe Twomey; Joe Coleman, Daniel Donovan, Ewan Knowles, Fion O’Donovan; Lochlann Rohan, Cillian Sturdy; Youssef Al Rubeei, Zinzan Llewellyn, Cullan Kearns; Danny Murphy, Rhoan Draper; Tristan O’Driscoll, Eeamon Murphy, James Tobin. Replacements: Liam Fleming, Conor McCarthy, Niall O’Donovan, Aaron Murphy, Tadhg O’Brien, Olan White, Matthew Draper, Isaac Neville, Tony O’Keeffe, Luke Griffin.

REFEREE: Peter Roche (MAR).