Historic first Connacht Rugby Schools title for Carrick on Shannon CS with dramatic late rally

Not content with going into the record books as the first ever Leitrim school to win a Connacht Senior Schools rugby title, Carrick Community School delivered their victory in the most dramatic fashion imaginable, poaching ten points in the closing minutes to rescue a final that looked as if it was destined to go the way of their West Galway opponents.

On a typically windswept afternoon with the breeze whipping in off Galway Bay, both sides had a marked bias towards running the ball throughout, all bar a handful of the large number of penalties both ways being run rather than kicked.

In the early stages, that worked out in Carrick’s favour as they roared into a 14-3 lead by the midway point in the first half, Krystian Kopczynski and Rory McNabola touching down with quick darts off the base of the scrum.

Conor Kelly added the extra points but St. Paul’s gradually came back into the game, Cormac Forde scoring from close range to leave it 14-10 at half-time.

Surprisingly, Carrick remained reluctant to kick too often even with the breeze at their backs, and it was the Galway school who dominated possession and territory for the majority of the second half, running the ball with power and purpose.

Fiachra Carr was a wrecking ball at number eight, Dara Lowry pulled the strings from outhalf and when Lowry read a planned Carrick lineout move perfectly to snatch in an interception and go in under the posts, it looked like Carrick’s ship had sailed, 22-14 adrift.

As much out of desperation as anything, with the clock running out, Conor Kelly put boot to ball and after eating up nearly 70 metres of territory, it forced a holding on penalty, which three phases later resulted in Krystian Kopczynski bursting between two tacklers and over the line.

Kelly took his time with his conversion and shaped it in beautifully with the wind, and after setting up one more attack, a rash no-arms tackle gave the Carrick outhalf the chance to write his name into the history books.

30 metres out and with a swirling breeze rising and ebbing, it was far from simple.

But making history rarely is.

CARRICK CS: Jack Foley; Nizar Dizar, Diarmuid Creighton, Brandon McKiernan, James Lynch; Conor Kelly, Rory McNabola; Jan Balog, Matthew Ffrench, Michael Farrell; Stephen Donohoe, Des Keane; Aaron Durkin Moyes, Timothy Tansey, Krystian Kopczynski. Replacements: Alain Patterson for Balog (35), Luke Charles for McKiernan (HT-45), John Boyd for McNabola (53)

ST PAUL’S: Fionn Carr; Ryan Carr-Walsh, Ronan Delap, Simon Dalton, Eamon Lydon; Dara Lowry, Ciarán O’Hare; Darragh Geoghegan, Christopher McDonnell, Enda Kinneavy; Adam Colton, Devon Tierney; Cormac Forde, Ben Lyons, Fiachra Carr. Replacements: Joe Dalton for Lowry (28-34), Dalton for Carr-Walsh (34), Stephen O’Flaherty for Lyons (60)

Referee: Aaron O’Connor