Summerhill opened their Connacht Senior Cup campaign with a five-point victory over St. Muredach’s College under tricky conditions in Hamilton Park this afternoon.

Tries from Regan and Schön either side of the half along with an O’Neill penalty ensured a 13-5 victory. Muredach’s did level the game early in the second half through Brown but the Sligo side never looked back from there. 

The weather in Hamilton Park along with potential first-round cup nerves lead to a scrappy and scoreless opening period. 

Summerhill dominated the early phases of the game and after winning a couple of penalties which they opted to take the scrum in, they decided Oisin O’Neill should kick for goal, however, the first placed kick of the afternoon drifted wide in what can only be described as treacherous kicking conditions. 

Coming up to the halfway mark of the first half it was a continuation of little errors that were costing Summerhill from taking the lead alongside a stout St. Muredachs defence. 

It was just after the twenty-minute mark when Summerhill opened the scoring through Clyde Regan who broke the tackle and got down on the second attempt to take what was a deserved lead up to this point of the match. O’Neill again struggled to find the posts in tricky conditions leaving Summerhill up by five.

St. Muredach’s struggled to build any attack in the opening half. Upon finding some territory lineout errors which again saw the weather become a stumbling block saw them turnover possession just as quickly as they advanced up the field. 

At the break, Summerhill held their slender five-point lead but Muredach’s started to come into the game before the interval and would be looking to keep this momentum into the second half. 

Muredach’s did exactly that as they immediately pushed Summerhill back and broke into the 22 for the first time but another handling error cost them position. 

They eventually made their early momentum count after a great cross-field kick ended up with Conor Brown touching down to level the scores in the second half. Fly-Half Ben Matheson was not able to add the extra points with the conditions still not favouring place kickers with a horrible swirling wind in play. 

Summerhill kicked back into gear immediately after the equalising try as they went through the phases down at the Muredach’s line and Kealan Schön went over the line after a quick tap and go from a penalty saw Summerhill take the advantage back once more in the game with just under 20 minutes to go. O’Neill struggled to convert the additional points once more. 

The Sligo side did not let off the pressure as they looked for an insurance score going into the closing minutes of play and despite a number of attacking errors, their ability to keep the pressure on Muredach’s forced the turnover often. 

Oisin O’Neill put some daylight between the sides with just eight left on the clock. A penalty from 18 metres out which was well struck had enough power to negate the conditions and went between the posts. 

Ben Matheson did take the opportunity to kick for the posts with the last kick of the game and despite the conditions managed to find the posts securing a potentially major bonus point for St. Muredach's but it was Summerhill who will go away with the victory in Round 1 winning out by five points.