#EnergiaAIL Men’s Division 1B: Round 6 Review

Energia All-Ireland League Men’s Divisions: Round 6 Results Round-Up

Captain Kieran O’Shea’s fifth try of the season helped his Old Wesley team to overcome Dublin University 30-16 in their top of the table clash at Energia Park.

Tom Larke, the division’s leading points scorer, was surefooted from the tee too, landing all six of his place-kicks for a 15-point haul which was crucial in a match that was tightly contested for long spells.

Larke and Matty Lynch swapped penalties before the Dublin University midfield gave way for an opening 22nd-minute try. Larke used scrum possession to ghost through a gap on halfway, and his return pass neatly put Niall Carroll in under the posts.

Trinity responded in impressive fashion, with tighthead Eoin McDermott gaining a couple of scrum decisions. Out-half Lynch knocked over two penalties to make it a one-point game, but Wesley struck again just before half-time.

A well-controlled lineout maul saw O’Shea crash over to make it 17-9 at the break, with Larke’s right boot extending the lead to 11 points early on the resumption. The students regrouped and were building nicely until disaster happen.

Just as the visitors tried to outflank the Wesley defence on the standside, Paidi Farrell intercepted a pass some 70 metres out and there was no catching the Leinster Academy winger who scampered in under the posts.

Big lock Artur Smykovskiy drove in low to raise Trinity’s hopes again with a 53rd-minute try, not long after an Alex Finlay break. However, Wesley put together a composed finish, with Larke turning a scrum penalty into the clinching score.

At the other end of the table, UCC ended their wait for their opening win of the campaign, leading from start to finish to beat Queen’s University 27-12 at the Mardyke.

Neville O’Leary ensured that UCC’s 99th Colours match started with a bang, using a third-minute lineout to hit the line at pace in midfield and leave a number of defenders trailing in his wake on a terrific 60-metre run-in.

Charlie O’Shea converted his own 12th-minute try, which saw him win the race to the touchdown after hacking a loose ball through and showing very good pace and skill to control it.

Despite Joe Hopes and Henry Walker coming more into this contest as the rain came down, Queen’s trailed 17-0 at the interval. O’Leary completed his brace with a strong finish, rewarding Evan Clarke’s offload off the ground and out-half O’Shea’s long skip pass.

Queen’s seized the initiative early on in the second half, their maul doing some damage and Munster development lock Conor Ryan was yellow carded for an illegal collapse. Hopes’ quick pick-up from a ruck closed the gap to 17-7.

Nonetheless, as conditions worsened again, Sean Edogbo and the returning Ryan were both prominent before O’Shea provided another assist for Munster’s Ben O’Connor to cross in the 63rd minute.

Ulster Academy hooker Walker hit back with a cracking solo score, beating four defenders with a clevery-angled run on the back of James Kerr’s initial break. Yet, replacement Harry Murphy sewed up the result for UCC with a 75th-minute penalty.

O’Shea, one of nine UCC players to earn their Colours on the day, received the player-of-the-match award afterwards, while captain Jason Aherne was presented with the Jerry Lucey Cup, the trophy which is contested each time these teams play each other.

Meanwhile, Instonians and Highfield provided enough late drama for the entire division as the Belfast side fought tooth and nail for a 17-15 victory at Shaw’s Bridge.

Inst came from eight points down with 10 minutes remaining, thanks to a Bradley McNamara try and Ruairi O’Farrell’s follow-up penalty, but Highfield almost snatched it at the end with Shane O’Riordan’s drop goal effort falling short.

O’Riordan had kicked the Cork outfit in front with an 11th-minute penalty, but Oli Clark’s muscular maul try, on the half-hour mark, gave Paul Pritchard’s men a 7-3 lead at the turnaround.

A slick back-line move off a scrum delivered Highfield’s opening try. A gap was prized open for Ireland Sevens international Nicky Greene to breach the 22 and go close, before Chris Banon grabbed his chance to snipe over from the resulting ruck.

Following his missed conversion which clipped the near post, out-half O’Riordan brilliantly broke through for a seven-pointer. He stepped off his right just inside the opposition 22, evading two tackles and absorbing a third one before grounding the ball.

There was still almost half-an-hour remaining, but Instonians needed a big final quarter. Turnovers from Daragh Fitzgerald and Travis Coomey saw Highfield hold firm until the closing stages.

Invited forward by O’Farrell’s short pass, Liam Kaprigiannis impressively broke the defensive line and offloaded for McNamara to get in under the posts despite O’Riordan’s tap tackle. O’Farrell’s extras made it 15-14.

Inst soon flooded forward again, forcing a close-in penalty with Coomey sin-binned for a ruck infringement. O’Farrell duly split the posts to edge last season’s Division 2A champions back in front with five minutes left.

It was enough to extend their excellent home record to 30 straight wins since gaining promotion back to the All-Ireland League in 2022. O’Riordan’s drop goal attempt, during the final play, missed the target from outside the hosts’ 10-metre line.

Aided by player-of-the-match Kaprigiannis’ contribution, Instonians have moved back up to second in the standings. Sitting four points back in fourth spot are Garryowen, who came away from City of Armagh with a valuable 29-15 bonus point success.

It was anyone’s game at half-time, with Armagh delighting the Palace Grounds faithful as they stormed back from an early 17-point deficit thanks to tries from Ulster’s James McCormick (2) and stalwart centre Timmy McNiece.

Fionn Rowsome had nipped through a gap for Garryowen’s opening try, barely three minutes in, and captain Des Fitzgerald spun out of a tackle for a second quick-fire score, set up by good work from Max Clein.

Well-timed passes from Lachlan Stewart and Rowsome released JJ O’Neill for the right corner in the 14th minute, yet Armagh managed to get off the mark by the end of the first quarter with McCormick’s first maul try.

McNiece shrugged off Alex Wood’s initial tackle to twist his way over and make it 17-10, and with the Light Blues leaking more penalties, Armagh’s maul built momentum again for McCormick to leave just two points in it.

However, Ireland Under-18 Schools international Rowsome increased his influence in attack for Garryowen, who went on to win for the first time in three rounds.

The young full-back slipped through a tackle and backed his pace to score in the 63rd minute, jinking around Armagh captain Shea O’Brien as the last defender. Stewart supplied the extras, opening up a 24-15 advantage.

Despite losing out-half Stewart to the sin bin for a high tackle, the visitors swiftly surged downfield in devastating fashion. Fitzgerald used a miscued Armagh lineout to break from deep, linking with Gordon Wood who put his brother Alex away for the 71st-minute clincher.

At Forenaughts, Naas picked up their second win in three matches to move out of the bottom two. They erased Blackrock College’s early 12-point lead to emerge as eventual 32-20 bonus point winners.

Tom Monaghan contributed two tries for Johne Murphy’s charges, while his centre partner Paddy Taylor led the scoring with 17 points, including five successful place-kicks from six attempts.

Connacht hooker Eoin de Buitléar marked his Blackrock debut with two early tries, one from a maul and the second via a clever lineout move involving Max Brophy. Harry Waters set up that latter opportunity with a great kick.

In response, Monaghan straightened up a pacy attack to touch down in the 22nd minute. Tim Corkery and Taylor swapped penalties to leave the scoreline at 15-10 in Blackrock’s favour.

Just over two minutes into the second half, Taylor crashed over as the Naas backs showed their quality. Jack Sheridan got on the outside of the defence, with Donal Conroy stopped just short before Taylor scored from Tadhg Brophy’s pass, and also converted.

It was not long until Brian Colclough’s high tackle on Conroy landed him in the sin bin. Blackrock conceded 10 points in his absence, as Taylor added a penalty and converted James Stockwood’s try which saw the big lock plunge over from a ruck.

The Kildare men registered their bonus point in the 68th minute, Monaghan the scorer after some lovely interplay between replacement David O’Sullivan and captain Will O’Brien to put the Kilcock man over from 10 metres out.

There was a late consolation score for Connacht’s Shane Jennings, who scrambled over from a Corkery pass. Despite that promising start, Blackrock’s three-match winning run had come to a disappointing end.

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