Another weekend, another scalp for the provincial renegades! County Carlow had already dented the ego of some of Dublin's finest in Section A of the Kitty O'Shea's Leinster Championship. These upstarts had shown that they are a club full of ambition and south-eastern promise.

Former Junior kingpins and newcomers to Division Four of the All-Ireland League, they are an organisation in transition. Not that anyone would have guessed that yesterday.

Carlow battered their way to another deserved home win, this time over Wanderers, when the Merrion Road men were sent on the long road home after a 29-19 beating.

This time it was enough to send Carlow through to the semi-finals of a competition that was responsible for unveiling the latent talent of John McWeeney and Kevin Knowlan last time around when St Mary's College became the inaugural winners.

Although, Carlow may not contain such outright individual flair, their players are bred into a set-up that encourages the very best intentions. They are a team bound by a collective will to chew through the opposition with the bite of an underdog.

Their latest escapade had Wanderers mesmerised, especially up front, long before the final whistle. The pivotal combination between number eight Andrew Melville and scrum half Leonard Peavoy once again was at the root of most of their good work. This was reflected in Melville's hat-trick of tries, two of which arrived courtesy of pushovers. Crude but effective.

For Clontarf, qualification from the same Section into the last four was not such a landmark achievement. They are aware that some of the bigger clubs only take a passing interest in the destination of a championship that has little in the way of traditional eminence.

Nevertheless, last year's winners journeyed to Castle Avenue in no mood to wither away. St Mary's came as the section leaders on points difference, with Clontarf a point behind. This was the crunch match of the day. The holders left empty handed.

With both sides missing a batch of regulars, the fringe players had the opportunity to make a play for the first 15. Out half Richie Murphy provided the kicking reliability for Clontarf. This allowed Mark Woods to make the most of his incursions into the line from full back. Last year, Woods may have been thrust into the out-half berth a tad too early. This term the full back role seems to be helping him to ease his way into the team strategy.

Woods and Gareth Aherne pinched the all important tries, with Aherne's coming at a crucial juncture after a Kelvin McNamee try - converted by Eugene Gibney - had clipped Clontarf's 19-10 half-time lead to just two points. Woods then made sure of the points with a cheeky drop goal.

Section B front-runners, Terenure College, recovered from an early deficit to make the trip to Dr Hickey Park a pleasant way to pass a Sunday afternoon. New recruit Mark Wyse kicked a penalty and a dropped goal for Greystones before Terenure settled into their stride.

Second row Pat Holden drove over in the 12th minute for Peter Walsh to convert and Terenure snatched a one-point lead they never relinquished. David Martin, David Coleman and Paul Hennebry all got in for tries, but Greystones were still within striking distance until replacement scrum half Derek Hegarty dropped a goal.

Thus, Terenure retained the only 100 per cent record in the competition and in the process did Lansdowne a huge favour. Despite this, qualification from Section B is still very much up for grabs as their series is two rounds behind that of the other section. Terenure must now be the hot favourites to emerge as group winners but Lansdowne, Greystones, DLSP and Monkstown all remain in contention.

Monkstown did so with the aid of a bloodless 23-16 win over pointless Dublin University. Relegation is not an issue with such a competition and, consequently, Trinity had little motivation to over-extend themselves.

On Saturday, Blackrock College put five tries past Old Wesley at Stradbrook with Tony Goldfinch, Brian Sally and prop Malcolm Cuffe among the scorers. In fact, this was an improved showing from the Donnybrook club. Andrew Leeson, Johnny Kenefick and Robert Casey grabbed their tries in a high scoring encounter.

Suttonians made it their first win in six attempts against a similarly impoverished UCD.