Having picked themselves up off the canvas a fortnight ago to revive their title defence, CBC face another significant obstacle in the Munster Schools Senior Cup quarter-finals.
The prize up for grabs between themselves and Crescent College Comprehensive at Thomond Park (Wednesday, 2.15pm kick-off) is a semi-final against PBC.
Pres versus Christians has been the final match-up for the past three seasons, but while PBC have enjoyed serene progression, CBC had to overturn a 28-19 deficit deep in stoppage time against Glenstal Abbey. Sam Healy notched two tries, replacement Tom Kelly got the last-gasp touchdown, and Conor Mulvihill booted the winning conversion.
“That’s going to stand to us,” said their head coach Dave Lee. “We’re after going the long way around this time. We’re going to have to improve and we’re going to have to dig deep again for that quarter-final.”
Lee got to take in Crescent’s 14-10 replay defeat to St Munchin’s last Tuesday. Harry O’Halloran has scored tries in both games for the Dooradoyle school, while it was a late brace from replacement Cullen Wiegand in the drawn game that forced another day out.
When they met in the group stage last November, Crescent were 24-14 victors over CBC.
The first quarter-final pits Bandon Grammar School against Castletroy College at Virgin Media Park (Tuesday, 1.30pm kick-off).
Last year’s Junior Cup champions completed an unbeaten group-stage campaign, while Castletroy went winless across their four games.
Since then, Bandon Grammar’s injury-hit 41-5 defeat to PBC showed the gap to be bridged to the competition front-runners. Now on the opposite side of the draw, the West Cork school, Castletroy, and semi-final opponents, St Munchin’s, will feel a pathway to the final has opened for them.
Castletroy have improved in knockout rugby with wins over Ardscoil Rís and Rockwell. The latter success was achieved by overhauling a 19-point wind-assisted deficit with 22 unanswered points. Robbie O’Donnell proved their stoppage-time match-winner.
“We came into this game and everyone said we were going to lose, so we’ll be rightly up for Bandon and anyone else,” said the co-captain.
