OLD BELVEDERE, who have lost out to late scores so often this season, most notably against Garryowen, grabbed a late try themselves at Anglesea Road on Saturday, to pull away from Instonians at the bottom of Division One.

Old Belvedere's new coach, Terry Burkett, who like his predecessor John Connolly, is a Queenslander, was happy to taste victory - only their second this season - in his first AIL match in charge. But he admitted "we certainly made hard work of it. We had more options than we used in the first half, we should have been up more at half-time".

The home side, playing with wind advantage, had the better of the first half and opened the scoring in the eighth minute when a good break by Ireland A centre Martin Ridge, who was making his league debut for Belvedere, let O'Reilly in for a try. Scrumhalf Barry Murphy added the points.

Two minutes Instonians' scrumhalf Kenton Hillman tapped a quick penalty to himself 10 metres inside his own half and glided through an Old Belvedere defence that had gone walkabout. Flanker Keith Parker arrived on cue to take on the ball and dive over. Kevin Gartside's attempted conversion came back off the upright.

Instonians were penalised at a ruck close to their line on 23 minutes and when Belvedere put the shove on, Kevin Spicer dived in for the try. Gartside kept Instonians in touch with a penalty before Peter McKenna, who had a fine game at fullback, punished a loose clearance by dropping a fine goal to give the home side a 15-8 lead at half-time.

Outhalf Kevin Gartside, in for the injured Stuart Laing, did not have one of his happier place-kicking days. On 54 minutes he sliced a penalty narrowly wide from a very kickable position. Just to show it was no fluke he did it again from the same position two minutes later.

Kevin Spicer intercepted a pass a moment later and could have broken the visitors' challenge if he had shown less respect for, his, pursuer. However Instonians were penalised at the ruck again and Barry Murphy gave his side a 10 points lead.

What went wrong? "We started the second half well and then dropped away. Instonians played their traditional game and took the running option. We failed to organise our defence from broken play like we planned. Not taking anything away from Instonians, I would have been very disappointed if we hadn't beaten them after watching them last week against Wesley," said Burkett.

A hungrier, if more limited, Instonians got back into the game when hooker Andy Adair got the touchdown from a tapped penalty after a great break by flanker Kevin McKee had brought play up to the line. Gartside kicked the conversion and there were only three points in it.

Five minutes later Instonians after winning a line out hall on their 2 moved the ball sweetly out to left wing Graham McCluskey. He looked to have nowhere to go five yards out. but a combination of persistence and puppy tackling let him in.

Gartside could have wrapped it all up three minutes from time with a third penalty from the same spot that he had missed the two others. This time he pulled it right across the front of the goal.

Belvedere looked beaten but they stole it back when after good running by outhalf Willie Norse up the left touchline, O'Reilly took the ball on and dived over in the corner for his second try. Not surprisingly frustration was the first word that sprang to Brian Gallagher's mind. "We've had the beating of teams all season. We just had fortune going against us," said the Instonians coach.

However the cheer which went up from the sparse attendance for that O'Reilly try rang somewhat hollow. With respect to the South African official, who must be sick of it at this stage, people were entitled to ask in this non-relegation battle "where's the..."