Terenue College 35 St Mary's 5
The 'Battle of Dublin 6W' was turned into a procession for second-placed Terenure College as they recorded a 35-5 bonus point win over lowly neighbours St. Mary's College at Lakelands Park today.
Ireland's Grand Slam-winning coach Joe Schmidt brought the Six Nations and Triple Crown trophies along for the derby occasion, and he was part of a bumper crowd that watched his son Tim's Terenure side rubber-stamp their Ulster Bank League title credentials.
There is an acid test awaiting in the next round when Terenure visit Cork Constitution in what could be a straight shootout for a home semi-final, but James Blaney's men certainly head into that game in two weeks' time in buoyant form.
Taking a leaf out of Edinburgh's book against Connacht last night, 'Nure stormed out of the blocks and flanker Cathal Deans' converted try after just 30 seconds signalled their obvious intent.
The hosts were 7-0 up by the seventh minute, a smashing break by centre Marc Hiney ending with winger Jake Swaine crossing on the right for his seventh try of the league run.
Alarmingly, the Mary's defence gave way again just four minutes later. Hiney and Matthew Byrne showed impressive hands in midfield and former Leinster player Sam Coghlan Murray scooted over for the try, with out-half Mark O'Neill adding his third successful conversion.
Mary's, who look set to finish in the bottom two and face the play-offs with Division 1B opposition, came more into the contest either side of half-time. 'Nure lost flanker Robert Duke to the sin-bin and the visitors enjoyed a spell of dominance in the 22.
The pressure eventually paid off when young winger Craig Kennedy did brilliantly to collect his own well-weighted grubber kick and score an unconverted try in the corner.
Nonetheless, Terenure bounced back with the bonus point when number 10 O'Neill threw a couple of dummies and cut through to score by the posts. O'Neill finished with a 15-point tally, also converting the fifth and final try from his half-back partner Kevin O'Neill, who dived over from a five-metre scrum in the dying minutes.
Lansdowne 76 Dublin University 26
Division 1A leaders Lansdowne were at their free-scoring best, tallying up a merciless 11 tries as they hammered a gallant Dublin University side 76-26 on the Aviva Stadium's back pitch this afternoon.
Mike Ruddock's men bounced back from losing at Cork Constitution to produce an eye-watering final scoreline, running Trinity ragged at times and piling forward on the back of their dominant scrum. Full-back Eamonn Mills, who returned from Ireland Club International duty, winger Mark O'Keefe and scrum half Alan Bennie all scored two tries apiece for the victors.
The visitors' best spell saw them string together two converted tries midway through the first half. Some nice handling put winger Evan Dixon over in the right corner, and then they built through the phases before experienced scrum half Angus Lloyd sniped over to reduce the arrears to 26-14. However, that was as close as Trinity got.
Lansdowne ended the opening 40 minutes with two more tries - the first a penalty try from their powerful scrum and the second a well-taken effort from flanker Jack O'Sullivan. They had already guaranteed their sixth bonus point of the campaign thanks to early glut of scores in a flying start, which was sparked by O'Keefe's first-minute try.
The table toppers continued to stamp their authority on the game with four more tries before Trinity out-half Jack McDermott made it over out wide in the 59th minute. Indeed, Tony Smeeth's charges, who are third from bottom in the table, picked up valuable bonus point when hooker Dan Sheehan ran hard to score in the corner with replacement Tommy Whittle landing the touchline conversion.
There was still time for O'Keefe to have the final say for Lansdowne in the 70th minute, sealing a 50-point winning margin for the home side whose half-backs Bennie and Scott Deasy had a field day scoring-wise. Adding to Bennie's two tries, out-half Deasy also touched down, landed eight of his ten conversion attempts and was on target with a 65th minute penalty too. The Corkman's 24-point haul keeps him clear at the top of the division's scoring charts with 184 points so far.
Clontarf 30 Garryowen 35
Ireland Under-20 hooker Diarmuid Barron crossed for a brace of tries as Garryowen edged out play-off rivals Clontarf 35-30 in a thrilling Ulster Bank League contest at Castle Avenue.
The lead changed hands on seven occasions as Division 1A's fourth and fifth-placed clubs went at it hammer and tongs, with Barron taking on the 'super sub' role for Garryowen with the match-winning try three minutes from time.
After leaking an early penalty to David Joyce, the visitors hit the front when impressive young winger Liam Coombes sliced through the home defence for his eighth try of the campaign. Captain Neil Cronin converted and also added the extras to flanker Jack Daly's effort on the 20-minute mark.
Clontarf closed the gap back to 14-10 for half-time thanks to winger James McKeown's well-worked score off a lineout, and backs and forwards combined to tee up 'Tarf full-back Jack Power for the ideal start to the second half.
Joyce booted a penalty to open up a four-point lead (18-14), but Garryowen's well-oiled maul delivered the goods again when Barron was driven over in the 64th minute, with Cronin keeping up his 100% record with conversions.
Both sides bounded up the 4G pitch with impressive regularity in an attack-driven finale, as Ivan Soroka and Andrew O'Byrne swapped tries, the Light Blues staying three points in front (28-25), before Joyce's skip pass cut out two defenders and freed up Power to score his second try and bag the bonus point with five minutes remaining.
However, Garryowen stung the north Dubliners just a couple of minutes later when Barron barged over for his side's fifth try and game's decisive score, which has moved them back into the top four with only two rounds to go.
UCD 27 Cork Con 39
A spirited second half showing from hosts UCD was not enough to derail title-chasing Cork Constitution who ran out 39-22 bonus point winners at Belfield.
Con's backs were in fine form in the first half, finishing a couple of first-phase attacks to push the visitors into a 22-0 half-time lead. The hard work put in by backs coach Johnny Holland translated into scores from wingers JJ O'Neill and Rob Jermyn for the division's third-place side.
The early damage was done by a Tomas Quinlan penalty and prop Ger Sweeney's converted try, and the lead was extended early in the second period when Jermyn bagged the bonus point following some excellent interplay between back rowers Joe McSwiney and Luke Cahill.
UCD made a game of it during the closing half-an-hour, with try-scoring scrum half Patrick Patterson, a recent Ireland Under-20 debutant, and his fellow replacements providing some much-needed spark.
Winger Tom Fletcher and number 8 Stephen McVeigh bagged a brace of tries each as the students earned a losing bonus point, which effectively guarantees their top-flight status for another year.
Constitution had to quell UCD's comeback and they managed to do so with a second successful penalty from out-half Quinlan, coupled with influential second row Brian Hayes' late try from a chip-and-chase. They host second-placed Terenure next up with the result of that tussle going a long way to deciding who has home advantage in the last-four.
Young Munster 24 Buccaneers 22
Teenage winger Luke Fitzgerald swooped for the match-winning try in the 67th minute as Young Munster overcame bottom club Buccaneers on a 24-22 scoreline.
Munsters were made to work very hard for this result at Tom Clifford Park, which keeps them on the coat-tails of Clontarf (fifth) and Garryowen (fourth) in the scrap for the Division 1A play-off positions.
The Cookies had a strong hold of the game when they pushed 19-3 clear after 31 minutes, hooker Ger Slattery's try cancelling out a Conor McKeon penalty before in-form full-back Alan Tynan scored two tries in a nine-minute spell.
The first-year Munster Academy player also touched down twice in Young Munster's narrow Bank Holiday Monday defeat to Trinity, and he continued his current rich vein of form at Greenfields yesterday with two snappy finishes, adding both conversions himself.
However, Buccs are still fighting for their lives at the foot of the table and winger Darragh Corbett's timely try on the stroke of half-time kept them in the hunt at 19-8 down.
The midlanders launched a terrific comeback on the resumption and their full-back Alan Gaughan showed his power and pace to clinically match his opposite number Tynan's two-try haul. McKeon tagged on the extras on both occasions to suddenly push the Pirates ahead at 22-19.
Crucially, Munsters had time on their side and their back-line got moving again, releasing Fitzgerald, an Ireland Under-18 international last year, to run in a try which means Young Munster are still in contention for a top-four finish with two rounds remaining.
