Final agony for college boys
Patrician 36 Ballymakenny 31
ECSTASY turned into agony for Ballymakenny College as they coughed up a handsome lead and were pipped at the death in the Leinster Junior Development Cup Final at Donnybrook last Thursday.
Competing for the Pat Rossiter Cup in the Bank of IrelandLeinster Schools competition, the Drogheda college almost struck first when their winger Bradley Abbedeen scorched up the left, only for Patrician to steal possession and launch a counter-attack that led to a converted try.
Trailing by seven points after only three minutes, Ballymakenny regrouped and eventually put points on the board when Ben Smyth’s eye for a half-gap allowed him split the Patrician defence and no one went close to catching the out half as he touched down before tapping over the conversion himself.
That levelled the scores in the 20th minute and Ballymakenny soon struck again as centre Kingsley Akinbode ripped through the Patrician defence, beating four defenders with a blinding mixture of footwork and speed.
The Drogheda school kept pressing and Abbedeen’s brilliant burst down the left resulting in a third try and a third conversion for Smyth to stretch their lead to 21-7 in the 26th minute.
Approaching half-time Abbedeen showed up on the other side of the field to dot down for his second try and Ballymakenny’s fourth in a pulsating 10-minute spell - 26-7 at the interval.
However, the aggression of Patrician’s Conor Martin forced a mistake from which Senan Brannock touched down just after the restart, and a further converted try left Patrician trailing by only seven. The Newbridge boys weren’t finished yet and one of their replacements crashed over before another attack from deep resulted in a further try, converted from way out by Brannock.
Remarkably, Patrician had turned around a 19-point deficit with a an unanswered run of 24 points to lead by five, but the drama was far from over as Ballymakenny attacked and their number eight Dayle Eyres tied the scores at 31-31.
However, that score was met with yet another response from Patrician as Martin used a handoff to dive over and snatch victory. BALLYMAKENNY COLLEGE: Adam Flynn; Nathan Parris, Kingsley Akinbode, Declan Lynch, Bradley Abbedeen; Ben Smyth, Liam McEneaney; Sam Cooley (Richard Wilcox 29min), Josh Murtagh, Gerard Kierans, Oisin Lynch, Jonathan Clear, Cian Talbot-Gaynor, Colm Lynch, Dayle Eyres.