The Senior XV have been in excellent form recently and look to be building towards a strong season. With the cup campaign approaching confidence is high after excellent victories over St. Conleth's, Sandford Park (7's) and Templeogue.
St. Columba's ran in six tries against St. Conleth's on their return to Old Belevedere after their Shield success six months previously. Max Hopkins grabbed a brace while Kosi Anyim, Adam Murphy, Hector Wright and Thady McKeever also dotted down - Thady added two conversions. St. Conleth's would cross the whitewash just the once and SCC won 34-5 after a commanding performance.
The College took on Sandford in a 7's fixture recently, fielding two teams and winning both games. The first game was won 19-12, with tries from Max Hopkins (2) and George Guinness. Conversions were added by Alex Russell and Max Hopkins. The second team secured victory by 24-10 with tries from Sean Cooper, Adam Murphy, James Wilkinson and Ivan Moffitt, who also added two conversions.
More recently the Senior XV travelled to Templeogue in a league fixture and won impressively. They scored five excellent tries, through Sean Cooper (2), Max Hopkins, George Guinness, Hector Wright, on their way to a 31-7 win. Their cup opponents will be known soon so watch this space.
The Junior XV are going well also but, unlike the seniors, have tasted defeat since exodus. They also took on St. Conleth's in the league at Old Belevedere at the beginning of October and also recorded an impressive win. Some excellent work by the forwards allowed the backs to shine in open space. Eight tries in total were scored, two from Harry Petch and Clement Jacquot and one each from Thomas Somerville, Ollie Townshend, Mikail Sukhachev and Luis Malaga. The J's trip to Templeogue ended in defeat, sadly, but there is a lot of potential in this group. With a little more focus and intelligence in defence they could have a very successful season and have the potential to cause any team difficulties. They know how to score tries, which is encouraging, but need to prevent their opponents from doing the same. The game ended 28-17 to the hosts with SCC's scores coming from Ben Sigurvinsson and Matthew Russell (2), who also added one conversion.
The Leps won their first win of the season against Blackrock U14 D's last week. It was a chance to blood some of the less experienced JCT squad members and these players proved the difference really. Luis Malaga, in his first season of rugby, revealed his potential with four excellent tries (Luis is a powerful and pacy ball carrier and could yet force his way onto the J's starting 15 ) while Boris Schavlov added another. They won the game 33-22.
The Ducks have been playing a series of 10 a-side fixtures recently, against De la Salle and Newpark. The promising squad were divided in two even teams for the fixtures against rivals Newpark and both teams beat the Blackrock school by 5 tries to 2. Their first 15 a-side game came against Templeogue last Monday (they had to wait was Storm Ophelia caused the original fixture to be postponed) and their winning run has continued. Three excellent tries from Caleb Owen and another (from an interception) from Tom Larke, saw the home team edge the fixture 24-10, after trailing 0-5 at half time.