McGowan makes the difference

Alan McGowan's injury-time try, which he converted himself, capped a fine second-half performance by Blackrock College and rubber stamped a thoroughly merited victory. The outhalf contributed 22 points, his place-kicking in the blustery conditions underpinning his team's success.

Blackrock's effort was all the more laudable in that at two separate stages of the second half, they were reduced to 14 men: Bob Casey cooled his heels in the sin bin for 10 minutes and would be followed by Brian O'Driscoll, the latter for a clumsy tackle. Terenure flanker Peter O'Malley was also binned though his offence hardly warranted the punishment.

The match appeared delicately poised when McGowan converted his fourth penalty on 54 minutes to leave his side trailing by a point. Terenure, backed by the strong wind, would have been favoured to prevail but the Blackrock pack, superbly led by Shane Byrne, dug deep and ground out the hard yards while Michael Jackson proved a very effective ball carrier.

Terenure in contrast, descended to an error strewn scramble, a far cry from the fine passages of rugby in the first half when their ability to unload in the tackle caused Blackrock all sorts of problems. Steve Barretto, John Campbell, Alan Ryan and Peter O'Malley were particularly effective.

Scrumhalf Derek Hegarty ran 75 metres for a superb individual try and then centre Mark O'Kelly pounced on a Blackrock fumble just outside their 22 to make it 10-0. Blackrock, though, chipped away at the lead, three McGowan penalties and a Tom Keating try giving them a 14-10 half-time lead.

Richie Governey and McGowan exchanged a brace of penalties before the Blackrock outhalf's late try guaranteed victory. It was a huge blow to Terenure's play-off hopes, if another encouraging performance from the home side.

Scoring sequence: 5 mins: Hegarty try, 0-5; 11: O'Kelly try, 0-10; 14: McGowan penalty, 310; 19: McGowan penalty, 6-10; 31: Keating try, 11-10; 42: McGowan penalty, 14-10 (half-time): 43: Governey penalty, 14-13; 47: Governey penalty, 14-16; 54: McGowan penalty, 17-16; 77: McGowan penalty, 20-16; 81: McGowan try, McGowan conversion, 27-16.

Blackrock: N Turner; T Keating, B O'Driscoll, M Jackson, D Johnson; A McGowan, D Popplewell; I McLaughlin, S Byrne (capt), N Treston; R Casey, J Fitzgerald; T Hogan, D McGettigan, R Rogers. Replacements: J Ryan for Hogan (76 mins); A McSweeney for McLaughlin (78 mins).

Terenure: J Coffey; D Coleman, M O'Kelly, M Smyth, S Cullen (capt); R Governey, D Hegarty; S Barretto, C Egan, J Campbell; C Long, D Quinn; A Ryan, L Hammond, P O'Malley. Replacements: B Kavanagh for Hammond (59 mins); K Putt for Hegarty (65 mins); B Blaney for Egan (78 mins); M Quinn for Long (78 mins).

Yellow cards: R Casey (Blackrock) 41-51 mins; B O'Driscoll (Blackrock) 66-76 mins; P O'Malley (Terenure) 67-77 mins.

Referee: D Keane (IRFU).