Rock Win Leinster League Final
Leinster League Final
Blackrock College RFC 1st XV v Naas RFC 1st XV.
Energia Park, Donnybrook
Saturday, 12th Sep at 15:30
Energia Park, Donnybrook played host to 3 Leinster finals on Saturday 12th Sep.
Bective were victorious in the pennant, beating Navan.
Lansdowne won the cup, beating Mary's and of course our own boys in blue and white had a superb final showing to lead from start to finish to impressively and emphatically beat their own AIL Division 1B colleagues, Naas to win the Leinster Senior League for the first time in many decades it seems!
The action started right from the kick with a Naas line out on their 22 that was thrown long and opportunely, Luke McAuliffe exploded on to catch the ball and carry full stride through the Naas defence in an impressive statement of intent on 2 minutes with the opening try.
Tim Corkery kicked the conversion to set us up with a 7-0 lead.
Just two minutes later, Ethan Laing put in a huge amount of work to finish in the corner after receiving a beautiful assist from Tim Corkery, who came close with a tricky conversion effort, but missed.
12-0 after 4 minutes...
Bloodied but definitely not bowed... Naas started to settle and maintain possession for a lengthy spell thereafter which resulted in a nice backline move to the wing for a switch back into their 12, Paddy Taylor, who ran a deceptive line to run in under the posts and after a straight forward conversion it was game on at 12-7.
Key to this victory was our response to that score. Within 2 minutes, Thomas Quinn crossed under the Naas posts thanks to a super turnover and carry from James Burke in our own 22 that led to a lovely passage of play and series of breaks from our backline, notably Colm Quilligan, who released Thomas, whohad run a superb supporting line. A straight forward conversion for TC followed and we were back to a 12 point lead at 19-7.
That score was followed up by another phase of ongoing Blackrock College RFC possession and territory pressure which 8 minutes later led to a powerful and evasive final carry by Inigo Cruise O'Brien to score after multiple phases. Another conversion by Tom Corkery brought the score to 26-7.
The remaining 20 minutes of the half, incredibly saw as much action as the first, with Naas scoring after strong and maintained pressure in our 22 had seen us concede multiple penalties and ultimately the Naas pack worked hard to benefit from close-quarters pressure. A straightforward conversion made it 26-14.
A moment of magic with a show and go dummy to leave a Naas defender for dead saw prop Emmet Burns score down the other end. TC duly obliged with the conversion to make it 33-14.
The half finished with a huge piece of defensive work to hold up Naas who looked like they were inevitably going to score after a superbly organised maul from a line out after sustained pressure. Denying Naas that vital score as the final act of the half was a key marker laid down by this BCRFC side who had showed so much in attack but equally demonstrated their grit and hunger in defence throughout that first half!
8 minutes into the second half, Naas capitalised on Inigo Cruise O'Brien being harshly sin binned and scored out wide with the conversion missed to narrow the margin by bringing the scoreline to 33-19.
Thomas Quinn struck again after our men ignored the 3 points on offer from an easy penalty and instead kicked to 5 metres. Although the line out was won, Naas did a good job of disrupting it, so it was many phases later on the far side of the pitch when Thomas dotted down and TC slotted an excellent conversion to make it 40-19.
On 68 minutes after having been the early provider for others, Colm Quilligan benefited from his hard work by scoring after fighting hard at close quarters to break the line. TC yet again slotted the conversion, and the score went up to 47-19.
Much like the end of the first half, our men showed their defensive grit in spades again. In particular agressive defensive pressure by Tommy Butler forced a panicked Naas pass which Andrew Quinn brilliantly intercepted and had the gas to win the 40 yard dash to score. An excellent conversion by TC then made it 54-19.
Despite us following up with big Fionn Dougan fending off Naas defenders incredibly well to cross the try line in the corner on almost the final whistle, he was agonisingly adjudged to have crossed the touch line in the corner just over the try line.
The Naas restart was gathered well and they suddenly had numbers over out wide and ran in a well worked try to finish the game on 54-26.
Captain Burke thanked Naas and the branch and the officials immediately afterwards and reminded us all that it will be very soon that we will see each other again in Forenaughts in the AIL.
A huge credit to Luke Hickey, Richie Allen, Declan Fassbender, and Michael Hearty plus all of the support team for an incredibly positive winning pre-season that has seen Blackrock College RFC score 22 tries in three competitive Leinster Senior League clashes. (Notably 8 tries scored in each game against our AIL 1B opponents, MUBarnhall and Naas!).
What's hugely evident is the number of players involved and still to return!
At this stage, having concluded 3 competitive fixtures and 1 friendly, we have fielded 47 different individual players with the first team and an additional 17 have played also in a J1 friendly.
This far outstrips the availability in previous years and is testament to the professional focus and incredibly hard work carried out in preparation.
The work started on Monday 18th May and has been building full time and non stop since then, culminating in an incredibly heavy schedule of matches with a key training camp designed to tie in during this busy stage of fixtures.
Of course this is all to help to prepare for a highly competitive AIL Division 1B battle ahead. The first key block in the AIL are made up of the following fixtures, which we urge all to support!
Sat 26th September: MUBarnhall - Stradbrook
Sat 3rd October: UCC - Mardyke
Sat 10th October: Naas - Forenaughts
Blackrock College RFC Team Sheet
1. Emmet Burns
2. Luke McCauliffe
3. Shane Connolly
4. John Toland
5. Odhran Ring (Vice Capt)
6. James Burke (Capt)
7. Inigo Cruise-O’Brien
8. Kevin Jackson
9. Thomas Quinn
10. Conor O'Shaughnessy
11. Ethan Laing
12. Daniel Squires
13. Colm Quilligan
14. Louie Maguire
15. Tim Corkery
16. Jamie Rogan
17. Patrick Moore
18. Fionn Dougan
19. Tommy Butler
20. Max Brophy
21. Jack Ringrose
22. David Cogan
23. Andrew Quinn
Comments