Sligo too strong in Garbally’s last senior rugby fixture
Sligo Grammar School 29 Garbally College 10
By Kevin Egan
Garbally College’s aspirations of writing their name on the Connacht Schools Senior Cup for a 48th and last time were dismantled by Sligo Grammar School last Thursday afternoon in Ballinasloe, where the three-in-a-row champions produced their best rugby of the year so far in a one-sided second half.
With the name ‘St. Joseph’s College, Garbally’ about to pass into history, to be replaced by Clonfert College when they formally amalgamate with Árdscoil Mhuire next September, there was extra significance attached to this occasion, and for the first 35 minutes, the home side rose to it.
Nothing that happened in the league suggested that this was in Garbally’s locker, but as Tom Waters told the Westmeath Independent afterwards, injuries hampered their league challenge and they knew that they would have another gear for the Cup.
“Our lads have a lot to be proud of. We qualified for a home semi-final, we've been out of the loop for the last couple of years,” he said.
“This year we had a difficult league, we had a lot of players out injured, we were missing seven lads for the game against the Marist and with a relatively small panel, it’s very hard to manage that. Now we've got them back and we thought we were in with a shout today but we just ran into a very good Sligo Grammar team. The lads pulled out a big performance against Coláiste Éinde and they really grew after that, but Grammar’s experience and cuteness told out there.”
Playing into a strong diagonal breeze, Garbally kept the ball in hand well and made hard, good yards through their direct running game for the first half, led by Emmanuel Olanrewaju and Shane McDermott.
They competed well in the scrum, winning two put-ins against the head over the course of the game, while their lineout was also very competitive, relying on Éanna Caulfield heavily on their own throw, but with Filip Galbarczyk incredibly disruptive on Sligo’s throws.
They drew first blood too, Ryan Smyth and Seán Glennon combining well to set up Joseph Smyth for a straight run in under the posts. The lead was short-lived, though, Cathal Moffatt touching down at the opposite end after Sligo camped out on Garbally’s line for nearly five minutes.
Diarmaid O’Connell scampered in, breaking two tackles on the way, to make it 14-7 at half-time, while two excellent last-ditch tackles from Luke Manning kept Garbally within one score.
The second half, however, was a different story. Garbally's kicking game didn’t fire, either off the tee or when kicking for territory, and they struggled to ask questions of the Sligo Grammar defence, who were watertight.
“Their back three was very good, we kicked a lot of ball back to them and they fielded it and ran it back to us,” said Waters, referring to the excellent work of full back Ben Lawler-Kerr.
Without that ability to gain large chunks of territory off the boot, and with Sligo’s discipline holding up well and restricting penalty opportunities, that left Garbally with the only option of trying to break the line, and those chances simply didn’t arise.
Mark Tempany and Joseph Smyth traded kicks in the third quarter but once Andrew Hewson exploded along the left touchline to cross the whitewash in the 20th minute of the second half, Sligo had one foot in next Wednesday’s final.
O’Connell continued to terrorise Garbally in the tight exchanges, securing a series of turnovers, and the final act fell to scrum-half Andrew Ryan in the last minute, with his theatrical diving touchdown contrasting sharply with the visible wrenching disappointment on the faces of the players who will forever be the last team to take the field as ‘Garbally College’ in Connacht Senior Schools Cup rugby.
Scorers - Sligo GS: C Moffatt, D O’Connell, A Henson, A Ryan 1 try each; M Tempany 3 cons, 1 pen. Garbally: J Smyth 1 try, 1 pen, 1 con.
Sligo Grammar School: Ben Lawler-Kerr; Jasper Gimena, Bobby Hanrahan, Mark Tempany, Andrew Henson; Ben O’Connor, Andrew Ryan; Andrew Deegan, William Draper, Cathal Moffatt; Bertie Bamber, Jayden Bosomtwe; Kamal Mojekwu, Alistair Hewson, Diarmaid O’Connell. Replacements: James Winters O’Donnell for Deegan (34), Mark Bradley for Bosomtwe (61).
Garbally College: Luke Manning; Ryan Smyth, Eoin MKeague, Shane McDermott, Riain Clancy; Joseph Smyth, Corey Waters; James Burns, Oliver Burns, Adrian Piskorski; Emmanuel Olanrewaju, Filip Galbarczyk; Seán Glennon, Jack Flynn, Éanna Caulfield. Replacements: Cayson Cahill-Sheppard for J Burns (43), Cillian Ó Tuairisg for Clancy (58), Cian Costa for O Burns (69), J Burns for Piskorski (69), Darragh O’Keeffe for Flynn.
Referee: Cathal Roddy.