Irish Colleges had a well deserved 36-11 victory against the Scottish Universities at the well manicured Lasswade rugby club grounds, Hawthornden, near Edinburgh on Friday evening…
Within the two week period when they were narrowly defeated by England Students 13-10 at City of Derry RFC, this Irish Colleges team portrayed a sense of togetherness, great inspiration and a level of maturity at this well attended game which was the final game in the Four Nations student rugby series.
Irish Colleges first try was scored in the 10th minute by DCU’s Ben Reilly who received the ball after a great drive by Andrew Kerr with Reilly pushing forward to score.
Five minutes later Darragh Fanning abandoned caution embarking on a strong run from the 25 side-stepping three tackles in the process, to score under the posts.
This was closely followed by Max Rantz-McDonald scooping up the ball within his 10 metres, making the best of his running ability to score the try of the evening, Sean Tracy converted. In the dying minutes of the first half Scottish Colleges were awarded a penalty, ably taken by Fraser Azerlyle, leaving the score at the interval 17-3.
In the second half Irish Colleges soaked up persistent pressure from Scottish Universities who were awarded an early penalty, again completed by Frazer. Colleges eventually turned the game in their favour by scoring a series of magnificent tries by Darragh Fanning (2) with one converted by Sean Teracy, and Rantz-McDonald, converted by substitute Peter Broughan.
Towards the end of the game Scottish Universities succeeded in scorings a try (Peter Saunders) leaving the final score 36-11 for Irish Colleges.
The man of the match accolade went to Mark Hamilton from DIT.
IRELAND COLLEGES: Paul Harte (Athlone IT/Buccaneers), Max Rantz-McDonald (DCU/Clontarf), Kevin Lynch (CSN/Dolphin), Lorcan Kavanagh (DCU/Lansdowne), Darragh Fanning (IT Tallaght/St Mary’s College), Sean Joyce (NUIG/Connemara), Brian Collins (IT Blanchardstown/Boyne), Sean Treacy (DCU/Clontarf); Mark Hamilton (DIT/Terenure), Cian Culleton (Sallynoggin /Blackrock, CAPTAIN), Neil Simpson (UUJ/Instonians), Andrew Kerr (UUJ /Rainey), Ben Reilly (DCU/Clontarf), John Dever (Garda College/Terenure), Robert Allen (Cork IT/Dolphin), Eoghan Nihill (Blackhall Pl/Wanderers)
REPLACEMENTS ALL USED: Andrew Ferguson (UUJ/Ballymena), Batt Duggan (Garda College/UL Bohs), Paul Galvin (AIT/Buccaneers), (Karl Miller IT Carlow/Old Belvedere), Brian Collins (IT Blanchardstown/Boyne), David McElwaine (UUJ/Queens), Peter Broughan (Cork IT/Cork Con)
Manager: Mike Poole
Coaches: Eamonn Molloy, Chris Galway
