Sandford Park shaded this closely fought clash against St Mary's College, Drogheda - who were agonisingly close with a last-minute penalty - at Coolmine RFC.
St Mary's opened the scoring after five minutes with a try by Aaron Reilly, converted by outhalf Adrian Smith. Ten minutes later Sandford struck back with the first of Jack Patton's tries. Five minutes later Sandford grabbed their second try when centre Simon Cousins went over leaving the score 10-7 at half-time.
Midway through the second half Sandford grabbed their third try, when Patton went over again. St Mary's narrowed the gap with a try by centre Darren Thornton, converted by Smith.
SANDFORD PARK: R Madden; B Grogan, S Cousins, T McFall, D Tynan; P O'Brien, M Evans; W Rogers, P Allwright, A Boyle, R Mahoney, J Patton, B Connolly, L Masterson, K O'Dwyer. Replacement: R McDonnell for Cousins (69 mins).
ST MARY'S COLLEGE: P Heeney; M Fanning, D Thornton, S Reilly, J Wickam; A Smith, G O'Dowd; C Nugent, T Meade, I Doonan, M Black, T McGuinness, A Reilly, K McIvor, P Kelly. Replacement: K Gormley for Kelly.
Referee: P Dorman (ARLB).
