Kooringal High School ran riot in the second half to down the previously undefeated Kildare Catholic College 22-0 at Equex Centre.

The win left Kooringal, Kildare and Mater Dei Catholic College all level on points, with for and against needed to decide the eventual winner, given the grand final was scrapped for this year.

Kooringal needed to defeat Kildare by 18 points or more to claim the title and a Mitchell Carter try in the dying minutes was enough to clinch them the Hardy Shield.

The win came after Kildare did all the attacking in the opening 15 minutes but were unable to cross the line to leave the score 0-0 at half-time.

Kooringal were quick to cross after the break when Joel Tracey scored and they scored 22 points in 15 minutes to snare the title.

Kooringal coach Pat Logan revealed they went into the game without knowing what the magic number was.

"We thought it was about 16 points but we weren't sure. We didn't want to talk about it," Logan said.

"We just wanted to come here and win. We just lost on Monday night and we just wanted to come and win and hope that we could show that we were the better team."

It was a fairytale victory for Kooringal, who finished last in 2019 and were able to rise all the way up the schoolboy ladder to the top in the space of 12 months.

Logan said the players should be proud of their efforts.

"They'll be very excited to bring the Shield back to school because we haven't had it for eight years, so they'll be very excited I think," he said.

"It was full belief. We knew the boys could do it. They've got the talent to do it, it was just all about if they believed they could do it."

Kooringal defended impressively in the opening half as Kildare had a number of sets inside their attacking 30 metres.

After the break, Kooringal edged ahead through Tracey, and then back-to-back tries from Joe Roworth sealed the win.

Carter then got over the line for the try that won Kooringal the Hardy Shield. Three conversions from David Oti also proved vital.

Oti, Kooringal's halfback, was named Player of the Series.

Logan also singled out the work done by Damion Fraser with the team.

"We got Damion Fraser involved and he instilled a fair bit of belief in the boys," Logan said.

"We were calling it the mini rep team, just letting them know that they made it to this level, so just show us what you can do now because last year was pretty disappointing for us."

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