Ashbourne into Towns' Cup semi

Ashbourne advanced to the last four of the Provincial Towns' Cup on Saturday when they proved too strong for Cill Dara by 38-7 as they kept their bid for three major trophies intact.

Crowned league champions last week, Ashbourne also won the All-Ireland Junior Cup in January and now the Provincial Towns's Cup is the target in what is turning out to be a busy season.

Next Saturday the Ashbounre players will go into action in the first of three games in the AIL Round Robin play-offs and after that ity will be a trip to Cill Dara for a semi-final joust with Enniscortyh in the semi-final of the Towns' Cup.

Cill Dara formed a gurad of honour and welcomed League champions Ashbourne onto the pitch.
 Ashbourne made wholesale changes resting a number of players, but welcomed back Sean McKeon from injury to lead the team as well as giving Darcy Fergus his first team debut.
Cill Dara dominated the early stages, but had nothing to show for it when a break by Casey Dunne put Adam Martin into the corner for an unconverted try.

Ashbourne pushed further ahead with a piece of individual skill from Stephen O’Neill who fielded a ball in midfield and sprinted through for an opportunist try which Dunne converted and on the stroke of half-time for Simon Deevy went over for a try, Dunne converted for a 19-0 interval lead.

The second half saw Ashbourne gradually turn the screw and they claimed further tries from Fergus, on his deb, Conor McNally and Brendan Meehan with Dunne adding two conversions.
Cill Dara kept plugging away and finished with a try and conversion near the end.

Ashbourne - Stephen O’Neill, Casey Dunne, Jack O’Brien, Mark Rooney, Matt Connolly, Adam Martin, Shane Bass, Frank Keegan, Brendan Meehan, Jeff Mahon, Darcy Fergus, Sean Kent, Jake Wall, Sean McKeon, Simon Deevy Subs - Alan Wall, James McCaghy, Conor Hurley, Conor McNally, Donal Crotty.

SEE GUARD OF HONOUR