Calasanctius
Oranmore 17

Rice College, Westport 5

Rob Murphy at
the Sportsground

CALASANCTIUS College, Oranmore won the Connacht Tribune Junior Schools title for the second year in a row at the Sportsground on Wednersday. The Galway school were worthy winners thanks to a dominant display up front especially in the first half when they scored all three of their tries.

Oranmore’s experience from last year probably told in those early exchanges. They possess a pack of supreme quality and they put it to good work from the outset of this contest. The first ten minutes of the match were played deep in Westport territory and the ten point lead that was established laid down a definitive marker.

Tom Huxford, Johnny Lardner and the excellent Dan McCardle are part of the strongest front row a Junior final could ever hope to be graced with, they made life difficult for a quality Rice College pack and set the platform for their back row to cause the damage.

Rice College were playing in their first final and struggled to deal with the intense pressure upfront piled on by a strong Oranmore side in those opening exchanges. To their credit, once they settled they didn't shirk and defensively, bar that opening ten minutes, they were tremendously hard to break down.

The winners’ opening tries from flankers Paul O'Donnell and Paul Hackett both came from a strong rolling maul. Captain Darren O'Brien at eight completed a superb back three. The first try was within two minutes of kick off, the second came on 11 minutes and really felt like a crucial hammer blow.

However, Rice College answered those two early scores through scrum half Ernan Geraghty. He had come in as a late replacement for Dylan Carpenter and he performed brilliantly throughout, showing impressive vision to spot the gap.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.