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Connacht Schools Senior Cup Semi-Final
FT Score:
Sligo Grammar School - 29 (Cathal Moffatt, Diarmaid O’Connell, Andrew Henson, Andrew Ryan tries; Mark Tempany three cons, one pen)
Garbally College - 10 (Joseph Smyth one try, one con, one pen)
Kevin Egan at Garbally College.
The 2025 Connacht Schools Senior Cup final will be a third successive showdown between Sligo Grammar School and Marist College, after a dominant second half performance from the reigning three-in-a-row champions from Sligo overpowered Garbally College this afternoon in Ballinasloe.
With a strong diagonal breeze blowing down the ground and into the faces of the home side for the first half, the contest looked like a coin flip at the interval, when Sligo Grammar School led by 14-7.
Garbally College played a solid game into the winf, keeping things tight and leaning heavily on the direct running of 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 Grammar’s throws.
They drew first blood too, Ryan Smith and Seán Glennon combining well to set up Joseph Smyth for a straight run in under the posts after 17 minutes. That lead was short-lived however, Cathal Moffatt touching down at the opposite end after the Grammar camped out on Garbally’s line for nearly five minutes.
Irish international Diarmaid O’Connell, who produced another man of the match display to add to his lengthy collection, also got across the line when he broke two tackles and finished from 15 metres out, but other chances went abegging for the champions. O’Connell was invariably involved while Andrew Deegan also put in a tremendous shift for the opening half and they were both involved in setting up excellent opportunities for Ben O’Connor and Mark Tempany, the latter only denied because of outstanding last-ditch defending from Luke Manning to hold him up after he crossed the whitewash in the right corner.
Smyth and Tempany traded penalties early in the second half but it quickly became apparent that Garbally might struggle to take full advantage of the breeze, because their kicking game wasn’t quite at the same level as Sligo Grammar's. While Tempany, Andrew Ryan and O’Connor all used their boot to great effect, managing the elements and giving their side a huge boost in the territorial battle, too many Garbally kicks either went out on the full, or else were gobbled up and ran back with authority by Ben Lawler-Kerr, who played a very different game to Manning in the full-back role, but was no less effective for that.
A couple of missed goal attempts further drained confidence from the 47-time Senior Cup winners, who were hoping to add another crown to their roll of honour this year before they became Clonfert College after their amalgamation this summer.
With 19 minutes played in the second half, Sligo Grammar struck the decisive blow, with the Hewson brothers crucially involved at different stages.
Alistair Hewson, who was hugely effective in the rucks all afternoon, opened up the Garbally defence with a powerful 20 metre run, giving front foot ball from which Ryan and Tempany set Andrew Hewson away on the left touchline. An explosive finish left Garbally two scores adrift, and with O’Connell terrorising them in the ruck and coming up with turnover after turnover, they never looked like adding one more score, let alone two.
The home side knew that their bid to get back to the showpiece occasion of Connacht Schools rugby was done for long before the contest finish with Ryan diving flamboyantly into the right corner for try number four, with Tempany following up with a fine conversion.
A fascinating final battle on Wednesday week (March 19th) in Ballina RFC awaits.
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 Smith, Eoin McKeague, 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.
