St Mary's 46-31 Clontarf
St Mary’s College ended a 14-year wait for glory as they were crowned Energia AIL winners on Sunday after a 46-31 win over defending champions Clontarf in Aviva Stadium.
A six-try showing plus a valuable 16 points from the boot of the talismanic Mick O’Gara denied Clontarf an historic repeat, and instead gave the south Dublin club an AIL title to go alongside the school’s Leinster Senior Schools Cup win from earlier in the year.
The defending champions made a dream start to the decider. Number eight Jordan Coughlan powered over from close range after just three minutes for the first of his two tries.
St Mary’s responded gallantly, and were off the mark minutes later as Mick O’Gara slotted a straightforward penalty attempt.
The Templeogue club found themselves in front before long. After hammering away at the line, centre Myles Carey dummied and dotted down, slipping through the cracks from close range.
Like the women’s final before it, leads would be short-lived and responses emphatic.
First it was Clontarf who retook the advantage to close out the first quarter. Flanker Aaron Coleman sneakily sped out of a maul to score. The set-piece had been a weapon all season, coached by Ireland legend Cian Healy, but the quick thinking of Coleman took everyone by surprise.
Before celebrations could go too far, St Mary’s responded with their next attack.
Winger Aaron O’Sullivan danced around the scrambling Clontarf defence before releasing Leandro Ramirez, with a deft offload who dove in in the corner.
Both sides traded blows like heavyweight boxers in an opening 40 that could best be described as exhilarating. However, defence proved most important with countless interventions proving the difference in an open and frenetic spell.
That was until a truly energy-sapping third quarter which started like the first.
St Mary’s were the ones to fire out of the gates this time around. Leandro Ramirez was denied a second try from millimeters out, before tighthead Michael McCormack muscled his way over. O’Gara was accurate with the boot, and the south Dublin club found themselves 10 points to the good.
This lifted their confidence, and the vocal and vibrant supporters with it. Close to 7,000 came through the Aviva Stadium turnstiles on a glorious day, but you would well believe it was double that with how boisterous both sets of fans were throughout the contest.
They would go on to extend that lead in style just over six minutes later. A bullet pass from out half Conor Dean to Ruairi Shields saw the full back race in and put St. Mary’s into a commanding position.
Both sides would trade seven pointers, within two minutes of each other, not long after the Shields try.
First Clontarf would find a response through Hugh Cooney as the Leinster centre made a brave read to jump Gilsennan’s pass and race 80 metres to score.
Although from the ensuing restart St Mary’s prevailed in the air, as they did so often across the game, with flanker Josh Gimblett dotting down from a metre out.
Clontarf’s Conor Kelly was sent to the bin for a high tackle shortly after the hour mark, with Mick O’Gara on hand to push the lead out to a 20 point margin.
Down a man but next on the board, Aaron Coleman was once again the beneficiary at the back of the powerful maul as the clock ticked down.
The contest fizzled out in the dying embers as St Mary’s looked to put the game to bed with a varied and impressive kicking game.
The icing on the cake would be applied by Conor Dean with an intercept of his own. The out-half getting in on the act to take the league leaders past the 40-point marker.
Clontarf would add their fifth try of the final through Coughlan late on, but there would be no denying the glory for St Mary’s College.
Speaking after the game, St Mary’s head coach Mark McHugh hailed the effort of his squad, and described the win as the culmination of years of hard work in the club.
"I’m just delighted from our point of view that our guys managed to show the best version of themselves.
"We’ve spoken about that a lot over the last three weeks in the lead up to the semi-final and final about being present as much as we can and enjoying the experience, enjoying the day and putting ourselves in a position to give what we feel would be a performance to be proud of.
"I think we did that today so I’m absolutely delighted."
Scorers - St Mary’s College: Tries: Myles Carey, Leandro Ramirez, Michael McCormack, Ruairi Shields, Josh Gimblett, Conor Dean. Cons: Mick O’Gara (5). Pens: Mick O’Gara (2).
Clontarf: Tries: Aaron Coleman, Jordan Coughlan (2 each), Hugh Cooney. Cons: Conor Kelly (3)
St Mary’s College: Ruairi Shields; Aaron O’Sullivan, Myles Carey, Mick O’Gara, Leandro Ramirez; Conor Dean (capt), Rob Gilsenan; Tom O’Reilly, Jack Nelson Murray, Mick McCormack; Greg Jones, Daniel Leane; Josh Gimblett, Ronan Watters, Dan Goggin.
Replacements: Richie Bergin, Oisin Michel, Andrew Sparrow, Conor Pierce, Finn Burke, Ethan Baxter, Mark Fogarty, Steven Kilgallen.
Clontarf: Tadhg Bird; Dylan O’Grady, Hugh Cooney, Daniel Hawkshaw, Alex O’Grady; Conor Kelly, Sam Owens; Ivan Soroka, Dylan Donnellan (capt), Charlie Ward; Fionn Gilbert, Jim Peters; Paul Deeny, Aaron Coleman, Jordan Coghlan.
Replacements: Declan Adamson, Alvin Amaniampong, Richie Whelan, Michael Moloney, Dan Magner, Conor Gibney, Darragh Doyle, Conor Bateman.
Referee: Daniel Carson
