Daly magic grabs injury-time draw
Kilkenny College 33
Gonzaga College 33
Leinster Senior Cup Plate Final
Barry Daly's astonishing injury-time try snatched a share of the title for Gonzaga in a stunning climax at Naas yesterday.
Kilkenny had trailed for almost the entire game but looked like they had won the plate when Foster Horan brilliantly finished off a move involving Tom Bulfin and Ross Bailey-Kearney with five minutes to go.
Peter Lydon's conversion put them seven points clear but the celebrations were to be short-lived.
There was no obvious danger when Daly received the ball behind his own try line in injury-time, but the winger started out on an amazing length-of-the-pitch run that ended with a try under the posts.
Conor McKeon made no mistake with the easy conversion to force the draw.
Jack Phelan, Cillian McDowell and Stephen Murphy had gone over for first-half Gonzaga tries, but there was just four points between the sides at the break thanks to Bailey-Kearney and Simon Delahunt tries.
The second half proved to be just as tight with Daly and Max Bernard-Day swapping tries early on.
Two Lydon penalties midway through the second half tied the scoreboard once more, and Kilkenny thought that replacement Michael Triggs had put them in front near the end, but his try was ruled out for interference.
That was only the beginning of the dramatic finale and in the end a draw between two evenly-matched sides was a fair result.
Kilkenny College -- E Keely; T Bulfin, F Horan, R Bailey-Kearney, S Sterling (B Rhys-Thomas 56); P Lydon, D Leybourne; R Deacon, G Ridgeway, S Delahunt (G Carroll 69), M Bernard-Day, A Doyle, E Elmes, R Frost, G Carroll (M Triggs 21).
Gonzaga College -- R Lenehan; J Phelan, S Murphy, C O'Brolchain, B Daly; C McKeon, A McEvoy; A May (A O'Reilly 51), A Clarke, J Curtain, M Lenehan, U Murray, A McDowell, C McDowell, S Mayberry-Thomas.
Ref -- U Ryan.
Irish Independent
