St Mary's pure quality

RUGBY: St Mary's College...34 Castleknock...7  The twin virtues of bravery and determination were never going to suffice against a team endowed with the quality that St Mary's College possesses, but Castleknock can be proud of the challenge they threw down during yesterday's Leinster Schools' Senior Cup semi-final at Lansdowne Road. For a fleeting moment, Castleknock aspired to one of the great upsets in the history of the cup, only to have that dashed in the closing half an hour.

When Castleknock's outhalf and captain Greg Stafford threw a dummy that bamboozled the entire St Mary's backline one minute after the interval and then showed great pace to cross under the posts for a brilliant individual try, the school's supporters would have dared to hope. Flanker Shane McCarthy's conversion meant they trailed by a mere three points at 10-7. He stood over a penalty opportunity two minutes later but smothered a 33-metre effort.

This is a very fine St Mary's side who play a compelling brand of rugby. It would be remiss not to mention the performance of tighthead Robert Sweeney, who is one of the finest exponent of his trade in the province.

His seven colleagues up front do not suffer by comparison and they dominated the scrum. Even allowing for such a platform, scrumhalf Simon Gibney offered a tour de force. Ronan Doherty had a quiet game by his standards - just the one try - while it was full back Stephen Grissing that inherited his team-mate's mantle for broken-field running. Jonathan Sexton also enjoyed a fine game after coming on for the injured Joey Connolly.

Castleknock, too, boasted several high profile performers in Niall Ganley, centre Marc Flood and left wing Vincent Gough. St Mary's led 10-0 at the interval; the first try, a run-in for Doherty after good work by the pack and hands by the backs; the second, conceived and executed by the front row. Hooker Ollie McCormack stole possession at a ruck, Sweeney clobbered aside several tacklers on a 20-metre run before being hauled down inches from the line and Cillian O'Byrne was on hand for the one yard plunge.

Following Stafford's riposte, St Mary's lifted the intensity and were rewarded with four tries, Grissing grabbed the first after good work by centre Michael Finlay, Clarke the second and the third was the by-product of a great Gibney break finished by James Ryan. Grissing's second wrapped up a fine team performance.

SCORING SEQUENCE - 11 mins: Doherty try, 5-0; 23: O'Byrne try, 10-0; 36: Stafford try, McCarthy conversion, 10-7; 45: Grissing try, Finlay conversion, 17-7; 57: Clarke try, 22-7; 59: Ryan try, Finlay conversion, 29-7; 65: Grissing try, 34-7.

ST MARY'S COLLEGE: S Grissing; J Clarke, M Ryan (capt), M Finlay, R Doherty; J Connolly, S Gibney; C O'Byrne, O McCormack, R Sweeney; N Conway, F O'Sullivan; J Ryan, C Lennon, P Nash. Replacements: J Sexton for Connolly (19 mins); I O'Herlihy for Finlay (65); G Roche for Doherty (65); B Higgins for McCormack (68).

CASTLEKNOCK: H Morrin-O'Rourke; E Flanagan, J Cullen, M Flood, V Gough; G Stafford (capt), M Flanagan; K Cooper, P McLaughlin, C Byrne; A Quinn, N Ganley; W Barry, A Flanagan, S McCarthy. Replacements: R Dillon for Cullen (60); A Elliott for Flanagan (65); Ciaran Byrne for Cooper (65); M Higgins for Christopher Byrne (65); D Gray for Quinn (65); A Nuzum for McCarthy (65); S Mullen for Flood (65).

Referee: A Lewis (Leinster)