The up-and-comers Gormanston needed to withstand an immediate onslaught. They didn’t – full-back Gary Hawe powered through contact into the right corner in the third minute.
Then, the Meath school’s centre Tom Downes swooped out of nowhere for an intercept inside his 40-metre line which he took to the house for out-half Daniel Morgan to convert for a 7-5 lead.
It wasn’t long before Wesley hooker Andrew Egan rumbled over and Adam Culbert sped into the left corner for the third unconverted try in the 20th minute.
Centre Culbert popped up on the other side of the pitch for his second, flanker Sam Darley punched in the fifth ticket and wing Alex Barlow-Ladias weaved a magic path to the sixth before out-half Bill Corrigan made his third conversion for 36-7 at the break.
Wes’ came on strong right away. It was the immaculate kicking of Gormanston’s Daniel Morgan that got them out of trouble until David Moran surged to the line for Corrigan to stitch on two more.
Number eight Moran was the extra man out wide for his second, replacement TJ Malone waltzed over, Campbell Classon thundered in from five metres out and lock David Motyer crashed over for their eleventh try.
It ended on a positive note for Gormanston when their captain Andrew Pryor burst over for their second try for Morgan to convert.
WESLEY COLLEGE 67 GORMANSTON COLLEGE 14
At Donnybrook – WESLEY COLLEGE 67 (D Moran, A Culbert 2 tries each; G Hawe, A Egan, TJ Malone, C Classon, S Darley, A Barlow-Ladias try each; B Corrigan 5 cons; H Fanning con); GORMANSTON COLLEGE 14 (T Downes, A Pryor try each; D Morgan 2 cons).
Wesley: Gary Hawe; Alex Barlow-Ladias, Adam Culbert, William Hayden, Karl O’Connor; Bill Corrigan, Andrew Lynam; Campbell Classon (Capt), Andrew Egan, Conor Skerritt, David Motyer, Sean Dunne, Sam Darley, Fergus Noonan, David Moran.
Replacements: TJ Malone for Hayden ht; Robbie Whitehead for Noonan 41mins; Eoghan Copeland for Egan, Ross Henderson for Lynam both 50 mins; Joshua Reid for Dunne, Con Green for Barlow-Ladias both 52 mins; Michael McKeon for Motyer, Harry Fanning for Corrigan both 55 mins; David Motyer for Classon 58 mins.
Gormanston: Jamie Canning; Josh McNamee, Jack Mitchell, Tom Downes, Aaron Rock; Daniel Morgan, Matthew Flanagan; Cormac Murphy, Gavin Daly, Sean Power, Jamie Morrissey, Olamide Okusaga, Jonathan Niall, Germain Mogilevski, Andrew Pryor (capt).
Replacements: Matthew Christie for Murphy 45 mins; John Callan for Rock, Aidan Duff for Mogilevski, Andrew Brown for Morrissey all 63 mins; Adam Pyne for Canning, Todd Lynch for Flanagan, Samuel Reddin for McNamee, Luke Brady-Deegan for Downes all 66 mins.
Referee: B Whyte, Leinster Branch
