St Mel's had to weather a second-half recovery by St Mary's of Drogheda at Kilcock before qualifying for the semi-finals of Section A.

Tries by David Quinn and Ken Masterson put St Mel's into an early lead. Then a good run by Francis Lennon set up a try for Michael Lindsay to make it 19-0 at the interval, Colin Glynn having landed two conversions.

The introduction of Niall Ronan steadied Drogheda for the second half. He was involved in a build-up to Niall Kirby's try in the 41st minute. Dermot Keegan kicked the conversion as well as a penalty to close the gap to nine points. St Mel's replied just once when Glynn converted a penalty and St Mary's finished with a try by Paul Rice, to which Keegan added the points.

St Mel's Longford: B Diffley; D McMahon, J Murphy, M Lindsay, E Keenan; T Nolan, E Brady; D Maguire, S Donagher, C Glynn, F Lennon D Farrell, D Quinn, C Silke, K Masterson. Replacements: M GIlchreest for Murphy N Walsh for Silke.

St Mary's Drogheda: N Kirby; R Gallagher, E Winters, P Rice, D Hughes; A Tallow, D Keegan; J Devereaux, M Maher P Veasy, K Geraghty, A O'Shea, J McGuinness, I Dunne, B Murray. Replacements: N Ronan for Veasy; Veasy for Gallagher.

Referee: F Close.