Newbridge College are the first team into the hat for the Semi Final stage, after they produced a dominant display to defeat CBC Monkstown this afternoon.

Eight tries in the finish, Todd Lawlor getting a hattrick, Ciarán Mangan bagged a brace, while Shane Davitt, Ruairi Munnelly and Charlie O’Loughlin also crossed the whitewash.

A strong performance by the Kildare side who will now sit and wait to see who are the other three sides they can face in the final four

It was a scintillating opening two minutes to the contest, Newbridge made strong strides to get up the other end of the field after Monkstown had them pinned back, great ball in hand and some swift passes had them looking comfortable in attack.

Paddy Martin the fly-half executed a mesmeric cross field kick which eluded the Monkstown backline as the bounce fell kindly to Adam Larkin Smithers, he offloaded to his centre Ciarán Mangan who’s little side step dummy created space and with Todd Lalwor on his shoulder he played the key pass in seeing his full-back glide over for the opening try, into a stiff breeze Paddy Taylor nailed the conversion for a seven point lead.

Newbridge almost came close to their second try in the 1th minute, Billy Bohan made a great initial drive to create space in the CBC defence, he offloaded to Ronán McGroary but he just knocked it forward, had the pass worked he was in for their second try. It would have been a double blow for Monkstown having lost Danny Kileen to injury.

The Kildare school had the momentum early in that opening half, just after the midway point Mangan crossed for their second try, again their build up play was the key factor, getting shy of the line they again passed wide looking to exploit a game and Mangan got ball in hand and sold a dummy pass out wide as Smithers was in support, he used his speed and power to race over for the second try, another difficult conversion for Taylor as this time it drifted wide.

An ideal start for Newbridge got even better seven minutes later, Shane Davitt added their third try after an incredible display of upper body strength, the big second row carrying through a sea of bodies, and as it looked like he was held up he bulldozed his way over, John R Walsh looked to have given him a little extra force which was enough to cross the whitewash, a move all coming from a well executed lineout, Taylor would again see his conversion attempt curl wide.

Monkstown looked to work a score toward the end of the half but the Newbridge defence were solid, despite Walsh going to the bin, their defence proved a watertight unit in the opening half as CBC failed to take a score, Taylor had another chance to further increase the Newbridge lead with a long range penalty the last act of that opening incredible 35 minutes from his side, but the kick felt the force of the elements and went to the left of the uprights, the Kildare side going in comfortable at the break ahead 17-0.

It was a dominant early start to the second half from Newbridge who showed no letting off, despite Taylor missing an early penalty attempt, Lawloor and Ruairi Munnelly both ran in tries in quick succession to move them 27-0 ahead by the 40th minute.

CBC got on the board through Rory Balamine after 43 minutes, the second row managing to ground successfully after some good phases of play saw their forwards put severe pressure on the Newbridge line, the conversion missed as every point mattered for the Monkstown side.

Just as it looked like we had a comeback on our hands, Todd Taylor crossed in the right corner to complete his hattrick, a quick burst of pace by the full-back doing well not to cross into touch, while evading the CBC tacklers to make a successful grounding. Paddy Taylor found his range to convert after having some difficulty from the tee in the contest.

The ability of Newbridge to make turnovers and from there use that possession to work a score is a key element to their game, another turnover allowed them to push well inside the CBC half, Martin spread the play wide and Mangan was there to race down the left wing and cross for their seventh try, a 39-5 lead as the conversion drifted wide.

Substitute Charlie O'Loughlin capped off the scoring for Newbridge, the prop has come dangerously close to getting a score but after a great drive he barged through for their eight try, Riley Scales added a late consolation try for CBC with Ronan Mahon converting an absolute peach.