Clongowes Wood College 12 Newbridge College 14

Newbridge College sealed their place in the last four of the Bank of Ireland Leinster Schools Junior Cup with a resilient performance at Energia Park.

Clongowes Wood had a huge chunk of the possession, particularly in the first half but Newbridge limited them to 12 points before coming good in the second half.

There was barely time for the excited crowd to take their seats before Clongowes opened the scoring.

Leo Dowling’s try right under the posts after just 52 seconds pushed his side into the lead and Charlie McNamee added the conversion.

The Clane school were playing with a lot of confidence and it was rewarded once more in the 11th minute when Inigo Cruise O’Brien pushed his way over to add another five to their lead.

The difficult conversion attempt bounced unluckily back off the post.

Newbridge showed plenty of ability when they escaped from their sluggish start and pushed Clongowes deep into their own half.

Inside centre Lucas Berti Newman, scorer of the winning try in round one, reaped the rewards of all this pressure, his try was converted by Mark Young.

Scoring was at a premium in the second half as both sides dug in and offered little against. That was until the Newbridge centre pounced for his second.

Intercepting the ball on halfway with only open road in his path, he touched down much to the delight of the Newbridge support.

Clongowes had opportunities to edge back in front in the remaining eight minutes but could not capitalise and it’s Newbridge College who move on to the last four.

Scorers – Clongowes Wood College: Leo Dowling, Inigo Cruise O’Brien try each, Charlie McNamee con; Newbridge College: Lucas Berti Newman two tries, Mark Young 2 cons.

Clongowes Wood College: Shane McNulty, Senan Noone, Eoin O’Regan, Johnny Kiely, Charles Kedde, Charlie McNamee, Harry MacGoey (Tom Hennebry 47’); Flavio Macari, Leo Dowling (JJ Reihill h-t), Toby O’Donnell (James Mangan 43’), James Ruddy, Diarmuid O’Brien, Liam Burke, Inigo Cruise O’Brien, Hugh Wilkinson (capt).

Newbridge College: Mark Young, David Grant, Calum Corcoran, Lucas Berti Newman, Harry Farrell, Robert Dillon, Tadhg Brophy; Patrick Stapleton, Tom Waters (Pierce Fata 21’), Harry Rigney (Conor McCormack 35’), Denis Downing, Cael Chanders (John Collins 48’), Ruairí Byrne, Sam Fitzgibbon (capt), Kieran Kelly.

Referee: Brian MacNeice