St Mary’s College 5 St Vincent’s Castleknock College 15

St Vincent’s Castleknock College are through to the semi-finals of the Bank of Ireland Leinster Schools Junior Cup.

They overcame St Mary’s College 15-5 at Energia Park this afternoon to seal the last four berth and claim bragging rights in this north v south Dublin derby.

Castleknock started brightly and patiently moved through the phases inside the Mary’s 22 throughout the opening 10 minutes and were eventually given the opportunity to put points on the board from the tee, Daniel Ruane obliging.

They could have extended that lead but for some exceptional defending, in some cases last-ditch, from Mary’s, particularly loosehead Tiernan O’Shea and flanker Lucca Jennings.

Ball-carrying second row Wali Khwaja was causing a lot of trouble for Castleknock and it was one of his breaks that set up the north Dublin side for their opening try.

A 30m break from Khwaja was capitalised on by Emmet Brady, the centre splitting open the Mary’s defence to touch down.

Ruane’s conversion ensured that they would hold a 10-0 lead for the break.

The sudden downturn in the weather conditions made it very difficult for both teams to play any form of flowing rugby.

When the rain and hail did break around the start of the final quarter, the D6W school finally got on the scoreboard.

A powerful run from No 8 Andrew Sparrow and offload to replacement out-half Daniel McNulty allowed the latter to sneak in to the corner.

Castleknock’s game management after that was impressive, as scrum half Luke Donohue moved them around the field.

Khwaja barged over from close range with time almost up to get the clinching score and providing them with some comfort room before the full time whistle.

Scorers – St Mary’s College: D McNulty try; St Vincent’s Castleknock College: E Brady, W Khwaja try each, D Ruane pen, con.

St Mary’s College: Gavin Foley; Seán Murray, Conall Cusack, Evan Moynihan (Fionn Meates 59), William Byers; Seán O’Connell (Daniel McNulty 36), Gavin Mulvihill (Luke McGill 45); Tiernan O’Shea (Joseph Durkan 59), Cillian Jacobs, Ruadhán Smyth (Oran Reid 59); Luke Policky (Tom Keogan 54), Noah Johnson (David Leane 37); Aaron O’Brien, Lucca Jennings (Fionn Devereux 59), Andrew Sparrow CAPTAIN.

St Vincent’s Castleknock College: Eoin Wallace; Jamie Fewer, Emmet Brady, Sam Wisniewski, Daragh Enright; Ross O’Connor, Luke Donohue; Billy Dowling (Patrick McNally 57), Sean Mahon, John Cadogan; Conan Lennon (David O’Callaghan 59), Wali Khwaja; Izac Scallan, Conor Boyle CAPTAIN, Daniel Ruane.

Referee: Jonny Hollywood