Carlow take Route 66 through New Ross into Towns Cup second round
Sean Quinlan breaks the line to set up Dan Crotty for a try. The Carlow centre scored two tries and created three in a glorious performance.
Carlow are through to the second round of the Bank of Ireland Leinster Towns Cup after a blow-out victory at home to New Ross on Saturday night.
The hosts ran in seven tries in the first half, and despite taking their foot off the pedal after that they added another three in the last ten minutes to finish 66-point winners.
This was the curtain-raiser for the competition, with Carlow hoping to bounce back from their heartbreaking loss to Athy in last year’s final.
Carlow occupy third place in Division 1B of the Leinster League having won five of their last six and were favourites against a New Ross side floundering in sixth place one rung below in Division 2A.
Carlow hit the ground running with a sweeping try just two minutes in. Sean Quinlan took a direct line into the New Ross 22 and laid the offload to John Murphy who drove through the defence before slipping the pass to Evan Jordan who dived over the line. Ben Crotty added the extras.
The hosts turned down a kick at the posts five minutes later after obliterating New Ross in the scrum. They kicked for the corner and having secured the lineout, quickly moved the ball wide where Rhys Edghill was on hand to score under the posts. Crotty converted and it was 14-0 inside ten minutes.
It was another huge carry from number eight John Murphy that led to Carlow’s third try midway through the half, breaking the line to send Evan Gordon in under the posts - Crotty again grateful for the simple kick.
There was no let-up in Carlow, who went in for try number four after just 25 minutes, winning a lineout on the right and going coast-to-coast where a basketball pass from Quinlan released Daniel Gray out wide, and the winger had the finish to match as he side-stepped the last man before dotting down in the corner.
The visitors were no match for Carlow’s scrum on a wet and blustery night in Oak Park, and it was all too easy for the hosts as the tackles fell off Edghill who went over for his second before Crotty added the additionals.
Carlow broke down the right where Quinlan completed his hat-trick of assists, unselfishly picking out Daniel Crotty for a sixth try, with another conversion making it 40-0 after half an hour.
There was still time for Evan Jordan to receive a speculative pass and show tremendous pace to charge over the line. An excellent conversion from Crotty left Carlow up 47-0 at half time.
New Ross spent the majority of the third quarter camped in Carlow’s 22, but still could not score, even after the hosts lost David McDermott to the sin bin 15 minutes into the second half.
Carlow still had the creativity to carve out a wonderful try in the corner in the 70th minute when some beautiful handling from Jonathan Crossley, Jordan and Quinlan saw the big centre finally add his name to the scoresheet. Less than five minutes later, Quinlan found space and carved New Ross open for his second try, with Alan Owens off the bench to add the extras.
The floodgates were wide open and Carlow took advantage, with Daniel Crotty finding space to run in his second try before Owens slotted the resulting kick to bring the rout to an end.
Carlow have reached 17 finals and have won the coveted trophy on 12 occasions, but their last triumph came almost three decades ago. Could they be primed for another run at the cup in 2026?
Tom Crotty’s men have been drawn at home to Wexford in Round 2 after they thumped Skerries in the opening round.
Tullow, who received a bye in Round 1, are also at home in the second round when they will welcome Kilkenny.
R Edghill, E Jordan, S Quinlan, D Crotty (2 tries rach), E Gordon, D Gray (1 try each), B Crotty (6 cons), Alan Owens (2 cons).
Ben Crotty; Jonathan Crossley, Sean Quinlan, Evan Jordan, Daniel Gray; Matthew Dempsey, Daniel Crotty; Tadhg Ronan, Evan Gordon, Ross Byrne; Wesley Shirley, John Lyons; David McDermott, Rhys Edghill, John Murphy.
Scott Neale, Patrick Rogers, Caolan Fitzhenry, Cormac McElligott, Conor Tracey, Alan Owens.
Yaseen Williams; Tim Coughlan, Eythan Van Tonder, Sean Kinsella, Matt Crowdle; William Whitney-Rothwell, Peter Waters; James Bryan, Jake Cullen, Jordan O’Brien; Jamie Brennan, Rory Browne; John Joe Lawless, Liam Whelan, James Fitzgerald.
Matthew Kavanagh, James Ryan, Cormac Tierney, Craig Bradley, Matthew Dunleavy.
Eoin Crossen
