Senior Rugby XV Win League Final

The Senior Rugby XV won the Leinster League Division 2A final on Wednesday, defeating Tullow Community School 28-10 at Old Belvedere. It was the first rugby trophy won by SCC since 2008. In a pulsating game of rugby, St. Columba’s withstood the early pressure and dominance from Tullow, to kick on in the second half and take the victory.

The opening ten minutes saw Tullow dominate possession and territory. St. Columba’s were defending well but eventually the pressure told and Tullow scored the opening try, which they duly converted  and they lead 0-7. The restarted afforded SCC the chance to take the ball out of their half. A well struck restart was won back by SCC and they started to string some phases together. The pressure led to a series of penalties being awarded to St. Columba’s, with Henry Carroll slotting his second chance to bring the score to 3-7.

Tullow came back at SCC but some great work by the forwards and excellent drift defence meant they couldn’t make any further inroads. St. Columba’s came back though and team captain Douglas Boyd Crotty bamboozled the Tullow defence to race from his own half and touch down for a try. Henry Carroll failed to land the difficult conversion but SCC led 8-7. It soon became 11-7 as Henry slotted over a good penalty after Tullow failed to roll away. However, just before half time, Tullow also scored a penalty after some more good pressure – they were playing really well but the final pass wasn’t clicking for them at times or the scrambling defence of SCC were closing them down. At half time it was on a knife edge at 11-10 – SCC with the slimmest of leads.

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There was a lot of nervousness amongst the huge Columban support – teachers, pupils, parents and past pupils – with many feeling Tullow had had the better chances and our boys were simply hanging on. But the more confident amongst the crowd expected a thrilling second 35 minutes from St. Columba’s – and so proved the case.

Another excellent (unconverted) individual try from Aifo Ebeleghe – who had a fantastic game overall – pushed St. Columba’s out to 16 – 10. A six point lead makes coaches very nervous – the crowd weren’t too comfortable either. It seemed that St. Columba’s were lucky to be ahead – their line-out was having a bad day and a number of scrums were turned over – but in truth their defence was putting enormous pressure on Tullow and they continued to make mistakes inside the SCC 22. St. Columba’s made no such mistakes when the opportunities presented themselves and when Douglas Boyd Crotty cleaned up some loose ball, offloaded excellently to Ivan Moffitt, they made great progress up the right hand side. Max Hopkins then carried strongly, aided by his team mates behind him, then Seán Cooper fed Hector Wright. He brushed off a few weak tackles and went over for another excellent try – the nervousness fizzled out and was replaced by belief. Another missed conversion left the gap at 11 points but Tullow were a little rattled now and St. Columba’s couldn’t do any wrong. (See Hector’s Try by clicking on the link on the top right)

Tullow were reduced to 14 men after a late hit on Seán Cooper at the ruck and then Douglas Boyd Crotty put the game beyond all doubt with another brilliant individual try. A fantastic step off his left foot created the space in midfield to race over and dot down under the posts. Callum Pery Knox Gore added the easy conversion and now the sizeable Columban support could rest easy – the score 28-10. In the semi final Tullow had to overcome a 17 deficient to reach the final but in this game they were scoreless in the second half – a true testament to the defensive efforts of St. Columba’s.

The final whistle blew and the Old Belevedere pitch was covered in a sea of green and white. Well done to all involved, including the coaching team of Mr. Andrew Mitchel (Head Coach), Mike Elliot Murray, Graham Dean (Strength & Conditioning) and Paul Cron (Head of Rugby).

 

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Rugby Squads Welcome Christmas Break

Since returning from exodus all the College’s rugby teams have been busy. Our Senior 1st XV travelled to Gorey last week to take on Coláiste Bríd Carnew – for the second time in as many weeks. Having beaten SCC recently in the first round of the cup – before being beaten themselves by Tullow the following week – Carnew found themselves drawn against St. Columba’s in the shield competition. Unfortunately, the game was an ill-tempered affair and Carnew proved just too strong for our boys yet again. Disappointingly for St. Columba’s, the game ended 10-0 to the Wicklow school.

Our Senior Development XV (comprising boys from Form IV and V only) were involved in two really competitive games over the past week. On Friday last, on the wonderful 4G pitch in Donnybrook (and under lights), our boys took on club-side Bective Rovers U17’s. It was a great open game of rugby in which Bective eventually left as winners, despite being down by 7 points with a few minutes to go. But two late tries from the home side saw the game swing in what seemed like an instant – it ended 29-22 to Bective. They will need to learn to close out these tight games in the future. Yesterday the Development XV took on a High School Transition Year side. It was a cracking game with a brilliant try from the ever improving Moritz Boyen the highlight. It was to be our only score though and the game ended 10-5 to High School.

Our Junior boys have also played two games since the exodus. First up was a friendly against near neighbours De la Salle Churchtown at home on Kilmashogue Lane. In a scrappy game, Thady McKeever again stood tall as a strong leader nabbing a try himself and converting one from Philip Shekelton. But it was their defence which really stood tall and the game ended in victory for our boys, 12-5 to the home team. Their second game of the week was against Gorey Community School in the Junior Shield match. Ireland’s largest school were simply too strong for them and they ran out comfortable winners 48-12. Again, Thady scored one try and converted another, scored by Julio Perez Cervera. They now look forward to a well earned break and a new league campaign in the new year.

Our youngest boys were also in action. The Leps had it tough against St. Michaels 2nd Year C’s, losing 38-0. The Ducks played in a ’round robin’ series of games against Terenure College and Belvedere College (both their 1st Year C’s). They lost their first game against Terenure by just two points. Tries from Jack Hayes, Marcus O’Connor and Tom Larke (also with one conversion) weren’t enough and they lost 19-17. However, they picked themselves up and defeated the Belvedere side, on a scoreline of 12-5, with Tom Larke again touching down (and converting) and Dennis Cullen getting the winning score.

It’s been a really busy term for our boys. Luckily, despite some of the results, the atmosphere has remained positive and there is a tremendous willingness to learn. Perhaps the relatively mild and dry weather also played a part, as well as trips to the Aviva to see Ireland play Canada, New Zealand and Australia. A huge thank you to all the rugby coaches for their dedication and commitment this term but, in particular, to Head of Rugby (and Boy’s Sport) Paul Cron for the huge amount of (often unseen) work done to ensure all teams train and play regularly in a safe, fun and enriching learning environment.

Merry Christmas!

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