ST MARY'S who have never beaten Lansdowne in the All Ireland League, failed again at Templeville Road on Saturday when a draw also scuppered any hopes they had of winning the title.

The faces of the St Mary's players as they trooped into the dressing room told their own story. After addressing his troops, coach Ciaran Fitzgerald attempted to focus on the positive aspects of their performance; but, try as he might, he could not hide his disappointment.

"For the first 20 minutes we played some good rugby, if perhaps we were over adventurous in our own 22. We ran the ball got up in support and attacked from far out with a bit of pace. I thought we created a lot of chances, enough chances to win the match."

With respect to Fitzgerald, this was not a match in which either team created many scoring opportunities. St Mary's did run the ball from deep, but they invariably got bogged down inside their half in the opening period.

"The lineout was a total jungle on both sides. From the start everyone was barging," according to Fitzgerald.

Either way, it was Lansdowne who came out on top, especially in the first half. Paul O'Connor and Shane Leahy completely outshone Jameson and Malcolm O'Kelly. From that platform the Lansdowne front row were able to drive forward and, after 10 minutes, play was virtually confined to the St Mary's half.

From a ruck on St Mary's 22 the ball was moved right. Fullback Ray Hennessy chipped into the corner, and, while the bounce deceived the St Mary's cover, it fell nicely for centre Bobby Geraghty who was up in support. St Mary's narrowed the gap within two minutes with a close range penalty from Nicky Barry in an isolated foray.

Lansdowne's half back pair of Gus Aherne and Johnny Woods continued to put probing kicks in behind St Mary's, and the home side struggled to clear their lines just before half time, Aherne stretched Lansdowne's lead with a well struck penalty from wide on the left.

St Mary's started the second period impressively. A good, if rare, break from the back of a scrum by Victor Costello brought play deep into Lansdowne's 22. When the ball was fed back, Vincent Cunningham almost made it over on the straight burst but was stopped short.

St Mary's kept the pressure on and moved the ball to the right, but Arthur McEvoy, who had come in off the left wing, appeared to have run out of space. He passed inside to Campion who popped the ball up to the hovering Denis Hickie, and the right wing's impressive acceleration saw him safely away from the flat flooted defence.

At that stage St Mary's were in the driving seat. Although Campion was off target with the conversion, their forwards, with Kevin Devlin to the fore were beginning to take control. But they failed to press home their advantage and there was no score in the remaining 33 minutes.

"I thought we'd played better than in previous matches. If we had played our last match like we played today, running from far out, we'd have been far better off," said Fitzgerald.

But for the running game to work you need clean lineout ball, you need your back row sucking in defenders and your front row recycling possession quickly. St Mary's slow motion version of the running game was predictable and boring. The contingent from Garryowen who were in attendance should sleep easily enough this week.

St Mary's, not for the first time, were carrying the flag for Leinster, but will now have to look to next season as the title heads to Limerick once more.