Schools / Leinster Senior Cup final: Blackrock College 14 St Michael's College 12: Lansdowne Road is an exposed old ground so when gales come calling, the rugby tends to suffer. Though that didn't stop Blackrock and St Michael's serving up one the most exciting schools finals in recent memory.

Cliche or not, this was a game of two halves. The wind blew hard toward the north terrace all afternoon and points came at that end, two first-half tries from Blackrock ultimately giving them their 65th senior cup, but it was agonisingly close at the finish.

Blackrock will not dwell on the huge penalty count in favour of St Michael's but if Noel Reid had landed a difficult penalty in the fourth minute of injury time they would have had a genuine grievance. Their solitary penalty in the 68th minute tells its own story.

St Michael's needed to go up at least two gears to achieve their first senior cup. To their credit they did - ironically the wind conspired to deny them at the death.

In defence alone, they were immense in curtailing the influence of Blackrock's feared back three for the most of the contest.

Fullback Luke Fitzgerald showed flashes of genius but was never afforded the half yard required to embellish a memorable schools career.

The runners-up must reflect on the opening try after five minutes, when Vasya Artemiev exposed the slightest of chinks in their midfield armour.

Blackrock outhalf Darragh Fitzpatrick took the ball around his angles before delivering a skip pass to Fitzgerald, whose delicate offload brought the winger in off the blindside.

Artemiev was faced with the defensive linchpin Conor Cleary, who attempted to smash the big Russian, but Artemiev's body position on impact allowed him slip the tackle and race to the line. Aidan Wynne added a difficult conversion, albeit with the assistance of the gale.

Cleary atoned immediately with a charge up the middle but the attack stalled on a handling error.

From the resulting scrum, Blackrock captain Paul Ryan picked up, only for his support to be penalised at the recycle - feature of the afternoon.

Reid missed the resulting penalty from in front of the posts.

Moments later, up the other end, Fitzgerald knocked on, after a dodgy pass, with the try line at his mercy.

The contest finally settled into the predicted routine 10 minutes before the break when prop Shane Cahill barged over for a second try. It should have gone to Brian Cawley but the workaholic secondrow was held up at the previous drive just inches from the line.

Cleary's ingenuity almost narrowed the gap but his well weighted crossfield kick came to nothing because of textbook covering from Niall Morris.

With the second half came wind advantage and an impressive show of St Michael's pride.

The rewards came early. An expertly struck 45-yard drop goal from outhalf Andrew Cummiskey and a Reid penalty put them within two scores. It also gave voice to the neutrals, who were all behind St Michael's, in a crowd that easily broke the 20,000 mark.

The Blackrock forwards responded with an assault that ended within centimetres of the try line.

With the phase count nearing 20 - Cawley was responsible for at least four gut-wrenching rampages - Fitzgerald came into the line only to grubber kick behind the cover. It proved the incorrect decision as St Michael's survived and came again via Reid's second penalty.

Cummiskey had the good sense to launch a garryowen toward Jan Simon Byrne, in cold for the injured Artemiev, who knocked on. Rock turned over the resulting scrum out near the touchline only to be penalised. Reid shifted the momentum back to the underdogs with a quality strike.

With the score at 14-12, a year of endeavour was in the balance.

Despite the marginal decisions consistently going against them, Blackrock looked primed to produce the killer blow. But frustration must have gone into overdrive when another attacking position was reversed for failure to remain on their feet.

Still, with the seconds ticking away, St Michael's never looked like getting into drop-goal territory.

A half chance eventually materialised four minutes into injury time when hooker David O'Brien was penalised at a ruck just inside the Blackrock half.

After discussion between the St Michael's captain, Tyrone McKillen, and referee Eanna O'Dowd it became apparent that this was the last play of the game. The ball was handed to Reid for a kick at goal.

As if the pressure weren't enough, the 16-year-old winger had to rush his routine as the wind knocked the ball off its tee during his initial approach. The strike was short and to the right.

The cup had a familiar home.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: V Artemiev try, A Wynne con 7-0; 25: S Cahill try, Wynne con 14-0 (half-time 14-0). 36: A Cummiskey drop goal, 14-3; 46: N Reid pen, 14-6; 57: N Reid pen, 14-9; 62: N Reid pen, 14-12.

BLACKROCK COLLEGE: L Fitzgerald; N Morris, J Lee, A Wynne, V Artemiev; D Fitzpatrick, D Moore; S Cahill, D O'Brien, W Kavanagh; D Dowling, B Cawley; D O'Connor, A Cullen, P Ryan (capt). Replacements: J Simon Byrne for Artemiev (58 mins), J Ronan for Fitzpatrick (67 mins), R Carroll for Cahill (69 mins).

ST MICHAEL'S COLLEGE: M Twomey; N Reid, C Cleary, N Reynolds, P Brophy; A Cummiskey, R Shanley; I Leonard, P Hynes, A Pollard; A Byrne, K McKenna; P Mallon, R Reilly, T McKillen (capt). Replacements: S Mahony for K McKenna (68 mins).

Referee: E O'Dowd (ARLB).