Bandon Grammar School banished the memories of last year’s early cup exit in Thomond Park overcoming Ardscoil Ris in a pulsating quarter final eliminator at Virgin Media Park. Rory Golden impressive scoring eight points on his debut.

The Cork school have now booked a quarter final meeting with St Munchin’s in the Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup quarter-finals, a big opportunity for the school to make the last four of this coveted competition.

Not making it easy on themselves as Ardscoil Ris fought right till the very end, when Sean O’Halloran was bundled into touch, the final whistle sounded and Bandon had done what was needed to get over the line. 

Bandon do look a hot prospect, certainly had Ardscoil not been so incredibly heroic in defence, the Cork school could have notched six tries instead of the three they would indeed score to catapult them into the quarter final stage.

Possessing an incredibly powerful scrum, Bandon exercised their power from the start giving Ardscoil very little chances at the lineout or when it came to the scrum. Senan Aherne was strong at 10 and his influence would give Bandon Grammar a lineout close to the Ardscoil line.

From the line-out maul that followed, hooker Piper was at the back to steady the ship and touch down having crossed the line. Rory Golden’s conversion attempt struck the right upright and the gap was just 5-0.

Ardscoil wasted little time to respond. Certainly with the ferocity of their attack, they looked hungry to get back on the board, after phase after phase Lloyd Costelloe was held up when they did get over the line. A penalty however would not signal the move coming to an end and instead gave them a second chance. 

Sean O’Halloran was pivotal in the build up operating at scrum-half, when a gap opened up, he made no mistake to race through unchallenged and dot down under the posts. Aaron Byrnes’ conversion stuck the lead for Ardscoil Ris putting them 7-5 ahead.

Bandon huffed and puffed and certainly gave it everything to overturn the deficit. On two occasions they were unable to fully utilise their dominant attacking maul, twice stopped shy of the line, one illegally and the other a handling error which grinded them to a halt.

Matthew Browne soon saw yellow and would spend the remainder of the opening half in the sin bin, which certainly gave Bandon the chance to exploit the numerical advantage. Again however they were held short and Golden would opt for the posts and see his effort go between the uprights.

Just on the stroke of half time, Bandon would get a serious momentum shift going into the break, Calem Harte who was held up for a try earlier in proceedings, gathered possession out wide and raced to the line to score. Golden had zero luck with the conversion attempts as his second again smacked the right upright. Bandon finished the half well to deservedly lead 13-7 at the interval.

Into the second half Bandon certainly came out strong and almost came within a whisker of another try, Michael Kennedy this time the man who held up over the line. From the goal-line drop-out taken by Aaron Byrnes, Golden fielded well before slotting an audacious drop goal to extend their lead to nine.

Byrnes soon slotted a penalty to cut the gap to six points, Ardscoil certainly still in the game but their defence was the star of the show as again they defended tooth and nail to hold up Bandon for the third time of asking.

Certainly discipline hurt Ardscoil in this one, conceding plenty of penalties, losing one player before the break and Joshua Dillon for a high tackle, Bandon who had confidence were ready to pounce again.

With 69 minutes elapsed on the clock they did just that, again their lineout maul, a very useful weapon for them, again they used that to get ground on Ardscoil and when the opportunity looked dead and buried, CIan Ring was on hand to deliver the third try of the afternoon. A backup Hooker who shows strength in depth for this Bandon side. Golden put 13 between the teams with a successful conversion attempt.

A mountain to climb for the Treaty men, they never did give up and made it a grandstand finish to proceedings. 

O’Halloran moved out to the wing and getting on the end of Byrne terrific long pass, he would touch down in the corner very much in stoppage time. Byrnes with a terrific kick to cut the gap.

We had one final play, one last chance, Ardscoil with the ball and as they soared forward Bandon defended well and knocking the ball into touch, they have the quarter final ticket punched and will be a tough task.

Post Match

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