St Mary's College - 28 Dungannon - 23:Probably the comeback of the season. St Mary's trailing 0-23 at half-time and Dungannon playing ball-carrying rugby that was both effective into a stiff wind and pretty to watch put a broad smile even on the face of former MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone and club president Ken Maginnis.
The home side recorded their first score of the match on 56 minutes when the ball was moved swiftly from left to right and caught Dungannon a man short, Graham Ingles touching down and Barry Lynn excellently converting from the touch-line.
Dungannon's perfect first half had seen Jan Cunningham run in two tries with outhalf Mark Bradley kicking the rest of the scores, a total that could have been greater if Dungannon had been more clinical in their finishing.
But after Ingles' score, even the optimists found it hard to believe that St Mary's, without the injured Keith Gleeson and Victor Costello, had either the time or the acumen to run the Ulster side down to the line. And there St Mary's will have earned significant respect, not just for their perserverance, but the patient execution of their comeback.
Not panicking, the home side took their penalties, Lynn kicking two more for 13-23 after 67 minutes. Dungannon, were then equally impressively making the hard yards with Paddy Johns and Justin Fitzpatrick breaking tackles and recycling, inching into St Mary's territory. It all looked very controlled.
On reflection, however, the tactic might have been too conservative and when St Mary's triggered another burst of a activity in the Dungannon 22, centre Alisdair Redpath was asked to hold back charging number eight Mark O'Shaughnessy. The two collided, Redpath bounced sideways and St Mary's moved to within three points after another difficult Lynn conversion.
By then, St Mary's had made a number of changes to personnel and formation. Gavin Hickie evolved from hooker into a running centre as captain Peter Smyth came off the bench with a rash of other replacements, while blindside flanker Karl Jennings began transporting himself to the left wing.
The whole shuffle worked.
Panic then set in to Dungannon and, following sustained verbals from centre Ryan Constable, referee Donal Courtney showed him the yellow card. That was enough of an invitation for St Mary's to pick up the tempo and put the squeeze on hard.
Under pressure, Dungannon offered Lynn another kick. He took it for 23-23 before an injury-time solo from Hickie who made yardage down the left wing, ball in hand. Confronted by a closing Dungannon defence, the hooker grubber-kicked on for Kieron Lewis to win the chase three minutes into injury-time.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 1 min: M Beadley pen 0-3; 9 mins: M Bradley 0-6; 15 mins: J Cunningham try, Bradley con 0-13; 30 mins: Bradley pen 0-16; 38 mins: J Cunningham try, Bradley con 0-23. Halftime. 56 mins: G Ingles try, B Lynn con 7-23; 59 mins: B Lynn pen 10-23; 67 mins: B Lynn pen 13-23; 75 mins: M O'Shaughnessy try, Lynn pen 20-23; 79 mins: Lynn pen 23-23; 83 mins: K Lewis try 28-23.
ST MARY'S: P McKenna; J Norton, K Lewis, G Gannon, J McWeeney; B Lynn, C McPhillips; P Tucker, G Hickie, D Clare, E Keane, G Logan, K Jennings, M Brown, M O'Shaughnessy. Replacements: G Ingles for McKenna (40 mins); J Kilbride for McPhillips, A McCarthy for Logan, P Smyth for Brown (51); D Griffin for McWeeney (55); T Moran for Tucket (77).
DUNGANNON: J Cunningham; S Mallon, R Constable, A Redpath, R Mercer; M Bradley, K Campbell; J Fitzpatrick, N Brady, R Mackey, P Johns, T McWhirter, M Haslett, A Hughes, A Boyd. Replacements: T Barker for Haslett (28); J Campbell for Mackey (64); J Mitchell for Redpath (80).
Referee: D Courtney (Leinster).
