Meath stars feature heavily in Sigerson semis

DCU and UCD advanced to the final of the Sigerson Cup after defeating Ulster University and TU Dublin

There was plenty of Meath involvement in the two college semi-final clashes this week as DCU and UCD advanced to the final of the Sigerson Cup which will take place in Galway on Wednesday the 13th of February.

After a thrilling encounter that lasted almost two and a half hours, UCD eventually defeated TU Dublin on penalties in the first of the two semi-final deciders at Abbotstown on Wednesday evening.

Aaron Lynch was crucial to UCD's success, as the Trim club man secured 0-2. Diarmuid Moriaty started for the South Dublin College, while St Peter's Dunboyne's David McEntee came on with seven minutes to go in normal time.

Jordan Morris featured for TU Dublin and scored their sole first-half point before suffering an injury after a blow to the face. Morris was reintroduced to the action in extra time. St Ultan's Cian McBride was on the bench for TUD as was Dunshaughlin's Fursey Blake.

At the end of 80 minutes, there was nothing to split the two sides and the contest had to be decided by penalties.

Morris was the only Meath representative involved in the penalty shootout and the Meath forward had the responsibility of taking two spot kicks. He calmly slotted away TU Dublin's 4th penalty.

Morris's penalty gave TU Dublin a 3-1 advantage and the Technical University looked set for victory. However, in sudden death, the Kingscourt club man missed his second, which paved the way for Roscommon's Ben O'Carroll to secure victory for UCD.

On Thursday evening, in another cracking game, for the second night in a row a Sigerson semi-final went to extra time but this time, DCU were able to outperform their opponents Ulster University and set up a final clash with UCD in Galway next Wednesday.

Captaining the DCU side, Trim's Ciaran Caulfield put in an excellent showing, scoring 0-2 from the half-back line, one of which was a crucial extra time point. Ratoath's Liam Kelly, Navan O'Mahony's Niall Devlin and Donaghmore/Ashbourne's Jamie Browne were all on the bench for the victorious DCU.