Clontarf 42 Blackrock 3:BLACKROCK COLLEGE held off a fierce Clontarf onslaught for 30 minutes before finally caving in to record their fifth loss in succession.
The desperation of the Blackrock defence was evident in the first half as they lost two men, Arthur Lyons and Conor Parsons, to the sin bin.
After holding Clontarf at 5-0 for the majority of the first half, they conceded a late try to scrumhalf Dermot O’Meara to trail 15-0 at the break.
The introduction of Matt D’Arcy for Clontarf at the break paid instant dividends, the secondrow crashing over for a try within two minutes of the restart. Further tries from Tim McCoy and Killian Lett broke the back of the away team’s challenge.
Fullback Martin Dufficiy finished off a fine team move out wide on the right with 15 minutes left on the clock and it was left to D’Arcy to add the finishing touch, and his team’s seventh try, when he touched down on the right wing in the last minute.
CLONTARF: M Dufficiy; M McGrath, K Lett, C O’Shea, T McCoy, E Ryan, D O’Meara (H Nolan ’58); B Barclay; T Consindine, N Treston (S Crawford ’67) , B Reilly (J Larby ’68), J Chipman, A D’Arcy, B O’Mahony (capt), F Cogan
BLACKROCK: A Letham; D Rowan, J.S Byrne, S Burch, I Byrne, C Parsons, M Walsh (M Lennon ’72); J Barretto (C Carroll ’20), R Fisher, A Lyons, D Dillon, A Dunlop, T Moran (G Holban ’70), M Connelly, J Langbroek
Referee: M Patton (Leinster)
