The dressing-room door remained closed for 10 minutes after the final whistle, the St Mary's College coach Brent Pope offering a few home truths. His frustration was easily understood. He had watched his team score two fine tries and for the next 50 minutes of Saturday's Division One match at Templeville Road, offer an array of juvenile errors, poor application and rampant indiscipline.
In mitigation while St Mary's definitely sinned, they were also sinned against. Referee Bertie Smith concocted a penalty count of just under 5-1 in Lansdowne's favour, a damning enough statistic but the official's decision making opened up a stream of dialogue from both sides. If the players had to remain largely tight-lipped and puzzled, the crowd were under no such obligation and gave vent to their unhappiness for most of the second half.
St Mary's would have been wrong though to blame Smith for the result and coach Pope wasn't about to do so. Instead he focused within: "We're not clinical enough and we don't have the hunger that we did last season. For 20 minutes of the second half it didn't even look like we were going to get the draw we got in the end.
"I haven't given up on making the play-offs but at this stage it's going to be very difficult."
It would be churlish too to ignore the character of the Lansdowne team, particularly the pack in this repeat of last season's league final. They targeted taking on the St Mary's eight and largely accomplished this goal, dominating in the set scrums and reducing the home side to a fractured share of lineout ball.
It was the work of their back row though, the excellent triumvirate of Aidan McCullen, Colin McEntee and Stephen Rooney that deserve the most plaudits. They made the hard yards and also bodily assaulted the St Mary's ball carriers. Unfortunately for the visitors, they lacked the flair and panache behind the scrum to trouble their opponents, the obvious exception, the under-utilised Gordon D'Arcy at full back.
His sorties from defence invariably put Lansdowne back on the attack. Despite having a platform provided by the pack, Lansdowne looked laboured in attack, running too many cut-back options in midfield: Shane Horgan had a quiet game until he limped off with a twisted knee. In the end the visitors had to rely on a superb placekicking performance from young outhalf David Quigley, who kicked six penalties.
In contrast St Mary's looked authoritative and assured, the midfield axis of Eddie Hekenui, Mark McHugh and Gareth Gannon creating several try-scoring opportunities from which they took two; the first was finished by left wing John McWeeney, the second by full back Peter McKenna. Indeed McKenna might have enjoyed a second but for a superb covering tackle by D'Arcy in first-half injury-time.
St Mary's struggled up front, the obvious exceptions Victor Costello, who enjoyed a fine match, and Shane Jennings. His workrate and ability to snaffle possession at the breakdown, allied to his ball-handling skills mark him as an outstanding prospect. St Mary's did have an opportunity to win the game at the death but Costello's pass to Eoin McCormack was adjudged forward. In the end they probably didn't deserve any more than the draw.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 1 min: McWeeney try, 5-0; 23 mins: McKenna try, McHugh conversion, 12-0; 26 mins: Quigley penalty, 12-3; 36 mins: Quigley penalty, 12-6; 40 mins: Quigley penalty, 12-9. Half-time: 12-9. 42 mins: Quigley penalty, 12-12; 51 mins: Quigley penalty, 12-15; 64 mins: McHugh penalty, 15-15; 68 mins: Quigley penalty, 15-18; 70 mins: McHugh penalty, 18-18.
ST MARY'S COLLEGE: P McKenna; B Bartley, G Gannon, M McHugh, J McWeeney; E Hekenui, E McCormack; P Tucker, P Smyth, D Clare; G Logan, D Griffin; K Jennings, V Costello, S Jennings. Replacements: M Donnellan for Logan 64 mins; A Conboy for Bartley 64 mins.
LANSDOWNE: G D'Arcy; L O'Brien, P Barry, S Horgan, R Niland; D Quigley, S Whelan; E Bohan, R Fallon, A McKeen; B Cusack, G Quinn; A McCullen, C McEntee (capt), S Rooney. Replace- ments: M Woods for Horgan 64 mins; L Toland for Rooney 78 mins.
Referee: B Smith (IRFU).
