Connacht “A” Senior Rugby Cup 2025 Semi Final
Marist College - 32
Colaiste Éinde’s - Salthill 17
The knockout stages of the Connacht Schools Senior “A” Cup have finally come and after Marist College’s 100% winning record, they were awarded the honours to host their semi-final on their home pitch in front of a very enthusiastic and encouraging home support.
Colaiste Éinde’s of Salthill, who are relative new comers to the “A” competition, were Marist College’s opposition. Their support arrived on trains, buses and cars to Athlone. Equipped with drums, horns and flares, they certainly made their presence felt and tried their best to be their team’s 16th man.
The Marist team was back to full strength, and they welcomed back Kailin Blessing and Captain Tom Sheehan after recent injuries. The team management of Mr. Broderick and Sam Fogarty had real headaches picking the team and the Marist’s replacements was full of seasoned players with great experience and playing ability and no doubt, they would make a big impact in this game.
The first ten minutes was a nervous affair, with both teams making mistakes in attack and Einde’s started to gain some ground with a clever kicking game from their Schools of Ireland player, Sean Walshe. It was however, one of his loose kicks that gave the Marist the breakthrough to score the first try of the game. Fullback Andrew Henson controlled the ball well and broke the first tackle to offload to Charlie O’Carroll who raced 50 meters, drew in two defenders and picked out Thomas Cotton, who dove over the Einde’s line in the corner. Charlie was unable to convert the try but, like a lot of Marist’s previous games, they quickly struck again with tries from Tom Bourke and a 2nd from Cotton in the corner. Einde’s were finding it difficult to deal with the speed of Marist’s backline and once the Marist team got the ball to the wider channels they were devastating and gained a lot of territory. Einde’s were now living off scraps and managed to gain three points from a penalty, but Kyle Mahon finished a move off very well to dive over in the corner avoiding the touchline to leave Marist 22 points to the good, just before the half time break.
A dangerous tackle from the restart put Einde’s into more deep water. The referee judged the tackle to be of a high degree of danger, with the Einde’s player making contact with the Marist player’s head giving him no choice but to show a red card. The game now almost seemed like a done deal as it was going to be a huge task for Einde’s to make up the difference while being a player down.
The 2nd half started and it seemed like the urgency had gone from the Marist team. They began to miss tackles and allowed the big runners of Einde’s to break the line. Einde’s soon got their 1st try of the game and it started to get a bit uncomfortable for the Marist team. Ill-discipline crept into their play and penalties gave Einde’s good field position and, at times, it looked like they were the team with the extra player.
Einde’s scored again and brought the score to within 10 points and now the Marist were defending for their lives. The Einde’s team were physically bigger and they were running hard at the Marist defence. Somehow Marist managed to escape a 3 on 1 overlap and gained field position, finally relieving pressure for the first time in the 2nd half. Ill-discipline, again let the Einde’s down as another red card was shown to their prop for striking. The resulting penalty gave Marist a bit of breathing space and a Philip Finan try on the final whistle put a gloss on the scoreline.
All roads now lead to Ballina on the 19th of March where Marist will face off against Sligo Grammar in the Connacht Final for the 3rd year in a row. The Marist men know that they must improve from their last performance but are confident that they have the ability to bring the Senior Cup back to Athlone after a 12 year absence. We wish all the team and their management the best of luck in the final.
Scorers: Tom Cotton x 2, Tom Bourke, Kyle Mahon and Philip Finan
- O’Carroll (2 Conv and 1 Pen)
Team: 1. Ciarán West 2. Evan McMickan 3. H. Hannan 4. Kyle Byrne 5. Peter Bourke 6. Oisin O’Donoghue 7. Kailin Blessing 8. Rueban Colleran 9. Conor Dowling 10. Charlie O’Carroll 11. Kyle Mahon 12. Tom Sheehan 13. Thomas Cotton 14. Thomas Bourke 15. Andrew Henson
Finishers: 16. James Kelly 17. Max O’Sullivan 18. Matthew Turner 19. Darragh Glennon 20. Paul O’Sullivan 21. Philip Finan 22. Alex Connor 23. John Okegbenro 24. Owen Egan