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St Mary’s Daniel Tourish celebrates with Joseph Christle after scoring his side’s second try. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\nBlackrock College 24 St Mary\u2019s College 24<\/p>\n
A final with a finale befitting the occasion. <\/p>\n
If next Monday\u2019s Leinster Senior Cup final replay is anything like this drawn first edition, those who make the trip to Donnybrook are in for a treat.<\/p>\n
In the game\u2019s last act, Blackrock captain Luke Coffey nailed a conversion into the wind at Tallaght Stadium to deny St Mary\u2019s College a sixth final victory \u2014 and a first since 2002.<\/p>\n
In doing so, the Blackrock captain kept alive his side\u2019s hopes of completing a three-in-a-row for the first time in 62 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we found a way over in the far corner,\u201d said \u2018Rock head coach Justin Vanstone of Cian McCarron\u2019s crucial 79th-minute try. \u201cAnd then the kick, obviously, from Luke.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou realise it\u2019s the last moment of the game, kicking into difficult conditions. I\u2019d back him 99 times out of 100, but when you factor in that wind, I think that probably changes the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the gusty wind at their backs in the first half, \u2018Rock failed to fully capitalise and almost paid the price as St Mary\u2019s stormed back into the contest in the third quarter, clawing back a 10-point deficit with two converted tries.<\/p>\n
Paul Neary\u2019s 62nd-minute penalty made it 24-17 in their favour but, in a game described as a \u201crollercoaster\u201d by St Mary\u2019s head coach Kieran Moloney, the Rathmines school could not hold out in the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever deserves to win on the day deserves it,\u201d noted Vanstone. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to reflect very quickly, focus on recovery and just see this as a great opportunity again, which is what it is. In this particular case, I think we just got out of jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Rock drew first blood in front of an attendance of 8,736, with Coffey slotting an early penalty before converting the game\u2019s first try, scored at close range by Harry O\u2019Neill, for a 10-0 lead after 23 minutes.<\/p>\n
St Mary’s Daniel Tourish celebrates with Joseph Christle after scoring his side’s second try. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n
Their rivals responded 10 minutes later through Eoghan Brady\u2019s try, with Neary adding the extras, but \u2018Rock finished the half on a high with Bernard White going under the posts and Coffey making it 17-7.<\/p>\n
However, St Mary\u2019s had recovered from a 10-0 deficit in their semi-final against Terenure, scoring 17 points in response, and it was a similar story in the decider as they took control in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Christopher Maguire\u2019s initial break culminated in Daniel Tourish scoring beside the posts in the 48th minute, with fellow backs Nicholas Sheehan and Conor Cantwell also involved.<\/p>\n
Neary converted, and St Mary\u2019s then took the lead for the first time through hooker Joseph Christle\u2019s try. The outhalf – Coffey\u2019s Irish Schools half-back partner – added the extras, followed by a penalty with eight minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
Blackrock had to respond, and they did, with hooker O\u2019Neill storming down the right flank to give his side one last chance. McCarron finished in heavy traffic before Coffey kept his composure with everything on the line.<\/p>\n
For head coaches Vanstone and Moloney, there is work to be done to lift their players after the extreme highs and lows of a day that delivered three tries, three conversions and a penalty apiece. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still 70 minutes from a Cup,\u201d said Moloney. \u201cWe\u2019re no closer than we were already. I think it\u2019ll be difficult for both teams. I suppose it\u2019s how we shape it. To be able to perform in a Cup final like that and put ourselves in a position to win, we\u2019ll take a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanstone reflected: \u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s difficult at the very highest end, let alone when you\u2019re dealing with schoolboys. And I don\u2019t think either Kieran nor myself really know what we\u2019re going to face in terms of the way the players respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
BLACKROCK COLLEGE: C McCloskey; A Vetjens, J Browne, B White, A Aschenbrenner; P Scally, L Coffey (capt); L Magee, H O\u2019Neill, B Guerin; C Power, G Eggars; C McCarron, P Agnew, T Keaveney.<\/p>\n
Replacements: R Kenneally for C Power (47 mins); R Keogh for P Agnew (51); L Golden for L Magee (53); L Hill for Keaveney (57); L Kelly for B Guerin (63), S Moloney for P Scally (67). <\/p>\n
ST MARY\u2019S COLLEGE: J Kelly; C Maguire, C Cantwell, D Tourish, N Sheehan; P Neary, J Fogarty; T Quigley, J Christle, D Kenny; E Brady, E Farrell; M Egan, A McGauran (capt), S Thornton.<\/p>\n
Replacements: J Whitty for M Egan (47 mins).<\/p>\n
Referee: Jack MacNiece. <\/p>\n
Scorers <\/p>\n
Blackrock: H O\u2019Neill try, B White try, C McCarron try, L Coffey 3 cons, 1 pen. <\/p>\n
St Mary\u2019s: E Brady try, D Tourish try, J Christle try, P Neary 3 cons, 1 pen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blackrock College 24 St Mary\u2019s College 24 A final with a finale befitting the occasion. If next Monday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,159852,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-351247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-leinster-schools-senior-cup","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}