Bantry are outgunned by Rockwell in Munster Schools Senior Cup
Kian O'Reilly scores a second-half try in the corner for Rockwell College in the Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup. Pic Larry Cummins
BANTRY’S first experience of the top tier of the Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup left a somewhat sour taste after a heavy defeat by Rockwell College at Musgrave Park on Thursday.
Still, they exited the competition with their heads held high after battling to the end against a Rock side, who now meet PBC in the quarter-final.
Rockwell’s power was evident all through with Tom O’Dea excelling out of touch and number 8 and captain Jack Ryan, along with Ben Everard, strong ball carriers.
They imposed themselves from the start and early pressure yielded a try after five minutes. O’Dea took a neat two-handed line-out catch and from the resulting attack Ryan forced his way over, 5-0.
Bantry showed up well in defence and Dylan Hicks’s touch finders helped restrict the Cashel side, whose forward strength eventually carved out a second try after 19 minutes.
The west Cork outfit manfully protected their try line though in the process Hicks was shown a yellow card for an offence in a ruck.
A quick tap and go produced a try for bustling prop Everard at the posts with out-half Kian O’Reilly converting for 12-0.
Bantry coped well with 14 players though Rockwell almost added a third try following a superb counter-attack from their own 22, centre Clement McAuliffe just losing control of the ball close to scoring.
It was Rockwell’s turn to lose a player to the sin-bin in stoppage time, hooker Ronan O’Connor looking somewhere perplexed by the touch-judge’s call.
Hicks tried his luck from the resulting penalty from 35m range, but his effort veered just wide of the left upright.
Rockwell added four more tries in the second-half through O’Reilly, Zac O’Loughlin, Ryan’s second and Conor Bowen with O’Reilly converting three times. A clear stiffer test awaits next time out, but for now it’s job done.
Tries: J Ryan (2), B Everard, K O’Reilly, Z O’Loughlin, C Bowen. Cons: K O’Reilly (4).
M Carey; M Lambe, Z O’Loughlin, C McAuliffe, S Leahy; K O’Reilly, W Bermingham; B Everard, R O’Connor, C Carroll; C Bowen, R Kenny; T O’Dea, J Ryan, A Harold-Barry.
R Kelly, C Neville, A Wall, R McKevitt, D Crotty-Casey, M Hayes, R Powell, M McCarthy, T Charles.
D Kingston; O Wiseman, J O’Sullivan, M O’Donovan, C O’Brien; D Hicks, S O’Donovan; P O’Sullivan, D McSweeney, JJ Nicholas; S O’Shea, C O’Sullivan; A Kelleher, F Barry, S O’Donoghue.
B Clancy, D Coughlan, K Wiggan, C Cronin, A Nel, C Bignell, P Cronin, C Kelleher, D Sheedy, E Reynolds.
J Moynihan (MAR).
