The Dublin City Council Cup came to a close with four fascinating finals with the Under 15 and Under 17 Shield finals, followed by the Under 15 and 17’s Cup finals.

The Under 15 shield final was contested by St. Kevin’s College and St. Vincent’s Glasnevin, while the 17’s shield final was bruising encounter between Drimnagh Castle and St Paul’s Brunswick St.

The Cup finals followed with Drimnagh Castle clashing with St.David’s Artane in the U15 Cup final, while the U17’s cup final saw St. David’s Artane battle St Kevin’s College.

The conditions were perfect in Donnybrook stadium, with wonderful spring sunshine. The curtain-raiser for finals day was the U15 Shield game. St Vincent’s flew out of the blocks with two early tries which rocked St Kevin’s. Although the boys from Ballygall Road never stopped, St. Vincent’s were too strong on the day and with St Kevin’s trying to get back into the match, their Glasnevin counterparts pounced on a couple of mistakes to run in a couple more tries. A score line that did not reflect the contest, which saw St Vincent’s named U15 DCC Shield winners.

The second shield final saw Drimnagh Castle take on St Paul’s Brunswick St at Under 17 level. After a frantic opening period, it was the Drimnagh side which settle first without-half Andrew Ciobanu becoming more influential on the game. With an excellent mix of running and kicking, the team from Brunswick St struggled to get any foot hold on the game and Drimnagh Castle ran out eventual winners.

The first of the cup finals was the U15 game between St David’s CBS and Drimnagh Castle. The Artane boys went into this match as favourites and certainly showed as much by racing into a 10 point lead in the opening few minutes. St David’s pack were dominating the set piece area and ran in another try early in the second half. With Drimnagh having a small number of the starting team representing the school in the U17 shield final, fatigue was setting in and gave themselves to much work to do to catch St David’s on the scoreboard.

The U17’s Cup final saw the two strongest team in this year’s competition fight it out for the chance to get the hands on some silverware. With both sides having players in their ranks that represented the DCC team in previous years this was going to be an evenly contested encounter. St Kevin’s started the stronger of the two sides with St David’s struggling to deal with the physicality and pace of the St Kevin’s backline.

As the first half came to a close both sides were found guilty of not taken their chances to add points the scoreboard. With strong messages from both sets of coaches, the two sides took to the field knowing the next score was vital. This proved to be the case with another line break by St Kevin’s inside centre Sean Dunne, who had enough to make the line. On the day the St Kevin’s had just too much for St David’s who tackled everything and were unlucky on the day.

All the players who were involved in the U15 set up are now looking forward to the DCC team programme. This is a competition with all four Dublin Council area’s will be represented and play for the Metro Cup. 

Any queries or for more information on this scheme or any other Leinster Rugby programs in the Dublin City area please contact the following;