Rice suffer Lough’ out in final
Dan Doheny of St Raphael's is tackled by Finn Hanley of Rice College during the Connacht Rugby Senior Boys 'B' Cup final at Dexcom Stadium in Galway last Wednesday. Pictures: INPHO/Nick Elliott
Junior ‘B’ Cup winners 12 months ago, Rice College came agonisingly close to adding Senior ‘B’ silverware to their Roll of Honour in the Dexcom Stadium last Wednesday against St Raphael’s of Loughrea.
Instead heartbreak was to be the lot of the progressive Westport school, who couldn’t quite overcome the loss of preventable tries at the start of each half.
A school far more well known for their exploits on the hurling field, St Raphael’s had a notable up-and-coming rugby talent in Jack Quinn at the outhalf position, and more than any other single player, the Galwegians and Connacht underage player forced the issue to pull his team across the finish line. He hit five perfect kicks from five opportunities, and also used every inch of the pitch – and the surprisingly benign weather conditions – to give St Raphael’s a notable edge in the territorial battle.
Rice College had their stars too. On another day, Cian Silke’s display in the 10 jersey would have been more than good enough to be the star of the half-back show, while Alan Gannon, Phelim Sheridan, Finn Hanley and Brandon Witzl also caught the eye with strong performances.
However, even in defeat, Felix Zeray’s star continues to rise. In his first year out of the junior ranks he scored three tries in this game and that was nothing more than fair reward for a performance that was filled with energy and intent, not to mention no small amount of sheer physical indomitability.
In both halves however, slow starts just left Rice College with too much to do.
“The boys kept going until the very last minute, we were in attack for the last minute,” said head coach David Keogh, who acknowledged that it was the Galway school that hit the ground running.
“We weren’t in the game for 20 minutes and Raphael's got the first score, which came from a bad read on [defence] from us. I have to give credit to Raphael's, They had a fantastic game and their 10 ran the game pretty well, they managed the game a little bit better from their kicking point of view and our kick chase wasn't as good as it should be.” On that initial attack, there’s no doubt that there was a breakdown in communication. Jack Danagher and Shane Lavelle were strong in their tackles in the early phases but a chasm opened up for Donal Nugent to drive through, forcing Brandon Witzl to come in off the wing and make a try-saving tackle in front of the posts.
His efforts were in vain as Jake Poland scored from close range, with Quinn adding the extras.
It took nearly half an hour for Rice to get on the scoresheet but there were positive signs along the way. They were getting on the front foot at scrum time, Alan Gannon and Jack Danagher were making hard yards in the tight and when they finally opened up some space on the flanks, only a last ditch diving fingertip stopped Shea Daly from setting up Liam Cadden in the corner.
Given Zeray’s power from close range, the five metre scrum yielded the first Rice try anyway, and the score of the game followed quickly as Witzl exploded down the right wing to score from 60 metres out, with Silke’s conversion making it 14-12 at half-time.
Crucially, the lessons of the first-half weren’t learned as St Raphael’s, despite losing captain and second row Conor Spellman to injury in the buildup, started the second-half with another try that came from defensive gaps opening up an attacking platform.
Jake Poland’s try was followed by an offside offence and another Quinn penalty, pushing Rice College into another hole that they had to try and extricate themselves from.
They did exactly that, with a collective score that was as efficient as any produced on a day of finals at the Dexcom Stadium, including the Senior ‘A’ Cup decider.
From Cian Silke’s kick to the flawless lineout and Alan Gannon’s drive, it was textbook set piece rugby, with that man Zeray there when it mattered to take the ball that final, critical three metres.
Silke’s conversion was no less perfect, hooked over perfectly from the right wing, but Quinn’s next kick was every bit as good, a penalty that nudged St Raphael’s back into the lead.
At 20-19, the game was still there for the taking for either team, but sadly for Rice, it was St Raphael’s who were first to reach out and take it. Tom Malone’s explosive run and finish left two scores between the sides, and it was only when back row Liam Reilly picked up a yellow card on foot of Finn Hanley robbing an opposition lineout that the Rice College support started to believe that their team’s ship hadn’t sailed.
To the credit of the players, there was never an issue of their stopping short of the finish line and Silke, Danagher and Zeray combined for a fourth try, duly converted by the young outhalf.
Rice College wanted that to be the score to set up a fairytale finish, but instead it just left them with the most painful margin of defeat of them all.
“We've only three missing from this team for next year,” was the silver lining on the black cloud of defeat for David Keogh.
“We're going in with a squad of 19 of these players for the senior next year, so we're thinking positive and we're hoping to bridge that gap as soon as we possibly can.
“It’s slow progress, but we're getting there and hopefully we'll get parity now next year”.
Rice College: Shane Brennan; Brandon Witzl, Matthew Mullaney, Ross O’Connor, Shea Daly; Cian Silke, Liam Cadden; Jack Danagher, Felix Zeray, Daithí McGreevy; Liam Geraghty, Phelim Sheridan; Alan Gannon, Shane Lavelle, Finn Hanley. Replacements: William Duggan (for Daly ht), Daly (for Brennan 44).
St Raphael’s: Eanna Cooney; Tom Malone, Donal Nugent, Joshua Forde, Isaac Dolan; Jack Quinn, Rory Gallagher; Gerard Maloney, Cian Fallon, Jake Poland; Rian Ward, Conor Spellman; Conor Fallon, Liam Reilly, Dan Doheny. Replacements: Paddy Malone (for Dolan 19), Dean McNally (for Spellman 43), Seán McLoughlin (for Reilly 68).
REF: Brian Kelly
