When the hurling sides of DCU and St Patrick’s Teaching College took to the field at 2pm on a perfect Wednesday’s afternoon the tension in the area could have been sliced, diced and spread with a butter knife.

St. Vincent’s GAA Club was the venue and the modest crowd assembled around the pitch waited with baited breath for the ball to be thrown in. The game was not your typical All Ireland quarterfinal. Neither was it just a derby match. It was also the meeting of last year’s finalists. For St Pats revenge was the order of the day. For DCU lay the chance to set their superiority in stone and remain the Ryan Cup holders for another week at the very least.

Pats got off to the nerviest of starts as within seconds of the throw in a low ball into the box was doubled on by Vinny Kelly and DCU were a goal up. DCU, keen to build on their lead, added points, with Paddy MacAvinue and Connor O’Loughlin both on target. Already 5 points down St. Pats eventually got off the mark thanks to a Niall Bergin free after 8 minutes. It was to be a busy afternoon for Bergin as the strength and outright superiority of the DCU defence meant that the majority of Pats scores were to come from the placed ball. For the remainder of the half the Pats free taker traded points with John O’Brien, Ciaran Regan, Paddy MacAvinue and Connor O’Louglin and DCU’s ability to score from play was definitely the difference between the sides. At half time DCU led on a score line of 1-8 to 0-4 and it was clear that Pats had it all to do.

The restart saw a Pats side, eager to overturn the deficit, throwing all that they had at a resilient DCU. Again for all their efforts Pats struggled to get the ball into their full forward line and crucially past an impressive DCU half back line. Willie Doran in particular shone at centre halfback for DCU and his performance was complimented to the full by halfbacks Niall O’Ceallachain and Damien Maher.

For the opening quarter of the second half Pats couldn’t buy a score as early pressure was sucked in and spat out by the DCU defence. Pats eventually got off the mark in the 12th minute with another Bergin free and quickly Bergin added another before DCU responded with two scores of their own from Paddy MacAvinue and John O’Brien. Mid way through the second half saw the introduction of a number of Pats subs that gave them a new impotice up front and on the 53rd minute the change almost paid off however Michael Breathnach’s goal was disallowed. This miss seemed to spur on the Pats players if nothing else and once more DCU were subjected to a barrage of pressure. Pats popped over two points from play on the 53rd and 56th minutes before, with only 3 minutes remaining DCU’s lead was cut to a single point by a goal that came ironically from the brother of last year’s DCU captain Colin Herrity. The tide seemed to be turning and many sides would have battened down the hatches and hope simply to hold onto their one point lead.

DCU though were not prepared to sit back and fighting fire with fire went up the field in search of the insurance score. The last attack of the game yielded a sixty-five, which Paddy MacAvinue duly dispatched with the game entering injury time. Pats needed another goal but try as they may there was little hope that the DCU defensive unit would be breached for a 2nd time. As the remaining minutes ticked away DCU looked comfortable and maintained their two point advantage with the game finishing on a score line of 1-11 to 1-8 and DCU safely through to this weekends Ryan Cup finals in Thurles. For information about the weekend look up www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~hurling.

DCU: Cillian Breathnach, Breandan Franks, Fiachra Burns, Paul Leonard, Niall O’Ceallachain, Willie Doran, Damien Maher, Colm Hennebry, Paddy MacAvinue (0-5, 4frees), Connor O’Loughlin (0-2), Ciaran Regan (0-1), Brian O’Donnell, John O’Brien (0-3), David Kelly, Vinny Kelly (1-0). Subs: Aidan Darcy for Ciaran Regan (50min) and Ronan Screeny for Vinny Kelly (50min).