Commiserations to the St. Ciaran's Junior Rugby team who were defeated by Wilsons Hospital in the semifinal of the Duff Cup on Wednesday. After a fantastic start Kells were up 7-0 from a Darragh Rock try which was converted by Jake Prior after 20 mins. Kells really put down a marker with some aggressive play in defense led by Kayden Brady who had a tackle count of 5 tackles in the first half. Wilsons came back with 2 trys before half time, the second one right on the stroke of HT after an error down the short side by Kells. It was easily converted. 12-7 at the break to Wilsons.
Kells had put in a huge defensive effort and turned over Wilsons on 3 occasions only to lose possession cheaply again which put Kells under a lot of pressure. All that extra work in defense spent a lot of energy. Kells had the advantage in the scrum and got the shove on every-time but couldn't capitalise when it mattered most. The LO led by Zach Boshell was again effective and Kells used the maul and extra pack weight well. Darragh Rock got in for his brace of try's mid way through the 2nd half but the damage had been done with two more try's by Wilsons and it was an uphill struggle from 10 mins after HT. The Kells backline was starved of possession and when they did attack, looked very dangerous. Wilsons ran out winners on a score of 38 ( 6 try's ) - 12 ( 2 try's ) and now face Good Council of Wexford in the final.
Well done to all of the squad and extended panel for their dedication and effort all year. Some of the players played a Gaelic match for the school on Tuesday and still turned up for rugby training that evening for the following days match. The dedication and enthusiasm was apparent from this group since early in the year. Well done lads. They did the school proud over the year. Thanks to their dedicated coaches Mr Sean Wright and Mr Ivor Keane also for their efforts.