ULSTER BANK LEAGUE ROUND-UP:ST MARY'S College followed up their runaway away success over Young Munster with another important victory over one of the top outfits, Cork Constitution, to move three points clear at the halfway stage of the Ulster Bank Division 1A at Templeville Road on Saturday.
It was an impressive sixth successive win after two defeats in their opening three games. But there is no question of their coach Peter Smyth reading too much into the 21-8 victory. “It’s great to be top of the table and to have put together such a good run, but you have to take into account that we are only halfway through. This is a very open league and anything can happen,” Smyth insisted.
St Mary’s second try only came three minutes into injury-time as their replacement secondrow Damien Hall blocked down an attempted clearance. His opportunism denied Cork Con a well deserved losing bonus point.
Clontarf and Lansdowne took advantage of another slip-up by Young Munster to move into second and third spot in the table.
Both are on 28 points, with Clontarf just ahead on points difference. Both also enjoyed bonus-point victories, Clontarf beating bottom side Old Belvedere 35-7, while Lansdowne ran riot against Blackrock College, scoring nine tries in a 55-13 victory.
After some recent disappointing defeats, Clontarf badly needed to regroup. They did so in some style at Castle Avenue with Noel Reid (two), Killian Lett and Sam Cronin scoring tries.
Reid’s second, two minutes from time, earned his side the bonus point. Richie Lane kicked the remainder of the points against an Old Belvedere outfit who could only manage one try from Danny Riordan, converted by Andy Dunne.
No such problems for Lansdowne on the back pitch at the Aviva Stadium. Surprisingly, second-from-bottom Blackrock led 13-10 at the interval, with out-half Darragh Fitzpatrick scoring all of their points.
But Lansdowne burst to life in the second period, adding seven unanswered tries to the two from the first half. John Cooney and Cian Aherne secured two apiece, with the others coming from Jordi Murphy, Roster Hogan, Nelius Keogh, Alan Matthews and Seán Carey. Craig Ronaldson landed five of the conversions.
Former leaders Young Munster are now fourth after a second straight defeat 26-20 away to Dolphin. Early in the second half, Young Munster had looked to be on their way to a comfortable victory after a Mark Doyle try, converted by Willie Staunton, gave them a 20-7 advantage.
But a penalty try, Dolphin’s second of the match, converted by Barry Keeshan, put the home side back into contention. Another try from Eric Moloney further reduced the deficit before Dave O’Callaghan ran half the length of the pitch for the winning score.
While Young Munster can point to the sin-binning of Liam óg Murphy, it was a tremendous comeback by Dolphin. They have now won two on the trot, beating Clontarf beforehand.
In Division 1B, Ballynahinch continue to lead the way, but second-placed Dungannon are grabbing most headlines. They secured the sixth try-scoring bonus point of their campaign when trouncing Ballymena 39-13 at Eaton Park.
Fullback Conor Gaston got two tries with the others coming from Chris Cochrane, Ali Birch and Stuart McCloskey. Dungannon and Buccaneers now trail Ballynahinch by a point. The latter had to withstand a strong UL Bohemians comeback before winning 20-16 at Annacotty. Tries from James Thompson and Stuart Morrison enabled the Ulster side to lead 17-3 at the interval.
UL Bohs had made a much better fist of it in the second half. They crossed for two tries from Dale Harris and Finbar Aherne to cut the deficit to just four points, but Ballynahinch held out for an important victory.
Buccaneers beat Galwegians 12-6 in the Connacht derby at Dubarry Park despite playing most of the game with 14 men. Dave Heffernan was sent off at the end of the first quarter, and Galwegians must have fancied their chances.
Buccaneers succeeded in raising their game to provide Jack Carty with the opportunity to kick the four match-winning penalties.
Belfast Harlequins won an entertaining encounter 39-22 against UCD at Belfield, while Bruff edged out UCC 22-18 in a bottom-of-the-table encounter at Kilballyowen.
Belfast Harlequins’ bonus-point victory keeps them in touch with the leaders. They scored five tries with Neil McComb and Stuart Olding getting two apiece.
John Shine got the match-winning try as Bruff snatched a late victory over UCC.
