DRIVING wind and rain failed to prevent Gonzaga and Newbridge serving up an entertaining 5-5 draw in a Leinster Schools' Junior Cup second round encounter at Lakelands Park yesterday.

Gonzaga's well drilled pack, featuring fine attacking performances from captain and number eight Conor Gahan and flanker Darragh O'Dea, ruled set piece play, while Newbridge had scrum half Andrew Guckian to thank for much of their good work.

Gonzaga enjoyed the benefit of the gale that blew across Terenure in the first half and it was the Dublin side who broke the deadlock after 15 minutes.

Gahan picked up from a scrum to crash to within inches of the Newbridge line and second row Patrick Mohr was on hand to complete the job. Although much of the play was near the Newbridge line for most of the half, that was to be Gonzaga's only score and at halftime they looked vulnerable.

Newbridge pressed forward after the break in search of the equalising try and it duly came in the 43rd minute. Number eight Peter Turley made ground from a penalty and Guckian was on hand to break for the line. His pass found winger, David Murphy, who touched down near the right touchline.

Ronan Kavanagh stepped up to take the difficult conversion, but his kick fell just short and bounced off the crossbar to leave the score at 5-5.