This was a rugged cup tie between two sides hell bent on getting through to the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup Section A quarter-finals at Merrion Road yesterday.

In the end, the more organised lineout and finer skills behind took St Conleth's through. They scored four tries, from number eight Matt Ryan, full back James Doherty, centre Vincent Gough and second-row Paul Ainscough.

In fact, St David's took the lead in the 24th minute from a well struck penalty by left wing Neil Smith. But captain Ryan barged over four minutes later to give St Conleth's a 5-3 lead at the interval.

Thereafter, it was a battle royal as the two packs tore into each other. The pace of Doherty, in the 45th minute, and Gough, three minutes later, decided the game. Ainscough had the last say in injury time and centre Barry Rogerson finally found the target with the conversion.

St Conleth's: J Doherty; I Lavelle, V Gough, B Rogerson, E Fennessy; T Donnelly, D McGovern; J Galligan, J Murphy, J Lynch; I Elliott, P Ainscough; M McSharry, P Creedon, M Ryan. Replacements: S Hynes for Lynch (44 mins), L Williams for Donnelly (61 mins).

St David's: D Byrne; E Killeen, S O'Brien, A McFadden, N Smith; D O'Sullivan, P O'Connor; A Carroll, C Taylor, D Taylor; F Bennett, R O'Brien; D Tyrrell, N Hoey, A Wyldes. Replacements: S Hayes for Bennett, R Linton for Killeen, D Malone for C Taylor (all 67 mins).

Referee: P Nolan (ARLB).