Rampant Grammar coast to semi-finals
Sligo Grammar 55 Marist College Athlone 3
Sligo Grammar Schooleased their way to thesemi-finals of theConnacht Schools seniorcup with a 55 points to 3victory over MaristCollege, Athlone, at TheMall on Tuesday afternoon last.
The Grammar ran in a totalof nine tries-seven of themcoming in a one-sided secondhalf-to confirm their status asone of the favourites forprovincial glory this term.A somewhat understrengthMarist had tried gamely to stayin touch in the opening half,but once outside centre, DavidButler, went over forGrammar's third try twominutes after the re-start andimpressive fly-half PatrickHughes added the conversionthe outcome was inevitable.
Grammar started well indifficult underfoot conditionsand from the kick-off pressedin the Marist half.Jonathan Clarke won anearly line-out close to theAthlone line, but a penaltyrelieved the Grammar threat,merely temporarily.
Grammar took the lead inthe 6th minute with a goodmove initiated by scrum-halfPeter Laffey and continued byHughes, who switched the ballto Stephen Butler and hisinterchange of passes with fullbackScott Oates saw Butler setup Grammar captain, TomCallaghan, for the try. Hughesmissed the conversion.
With John Gill 'sin binned'early and Evan O'Donnell alsoout of the action, Grammar losttheir early impetus as theywere guilty of some poorhandling and Marist hit whatproved their only score of thematch in the 15th minute whenJack Carty converted a penaltyafter an offside infringement.Grammar made it 10-3 nineminutes later when number 8,Danny Qualter, who produced anumber of powerful bursts onthe day, took a pass from Gill toopen the way for JonathanClarke to go over. Pat Hughesmade the conversion.
Carty missed two penaltiesbefore the break and twominutes into the second-halfGrammar added to theiradvantage when another burstfrom Qualter resulted in DavidButler going over. Hughesmade it 19-3.
Qualter posted another try in41st minute, converted byHughes, who followed up fiveminutes later by kicking on totouch down behind the line andadd the two additional pointsfrom the conversion.
At this stage it was only amatter of how many pointsGrammar could put on thescoreboard and tries from ScottOates and Stephen Butler, thefirst converted by Hughes,made it 45-3 with 52 minutesgone.
Grammar continued tointroduce a number ofreplacements in the closingstages.
Tries from BlythMcCormack and Hughes,unconverted by the scrum-half,completed the rout.Sligo Grammar School: ScottOates, Shane Creamer, DavidButler, Stephen Butler, MichaelMartin, Pat Hughes, PeterLaffey, Thomas Ferrari, GaryMcConnell, John Gill,Jonathan Clarke, EvanO'Donnell, Aaron Spring, TomCallaghan, Danny Qualter.Replacements-Donal Rooney,Peter Carson, BlythMcCormack, David Heath,Eamonn Gorman, Oskar VanDer Grun, Eoin Doherty,Christopher Brady.Marist Athlone: AlanMcInerney, Conor Greene,Conor Fitzgibbon, RobertHenshaw, David Fagan, JackCarty, Robert Corcoran,Emmett Donnelly, Eoin Kelly,Stephen Dowling, EvanMcBrearty, Taidgh Hennessey-Thorton, Bryan Teape, JamesDonoghue, Brendan Fagan.
