Sport

St Paul's gain little reward for all their possession

It was unfortunate for St Paul's that they had to wait until the 67th minute for their impressive full back Graham Johnson to…

Wed Jan 31 2001 - 00:00

It was unfortunate for St Paul's that they had to wait until the 67th minute for their impressive full back Graham Johnson to burst through for a try in this Section B first-round game at Donnybrook yesterday. In truth, the Raheny team enjoyed more than their fair share of possession with Jim Gallagher gaining a lot of line-out ball, openside flanker Brian Stokes productive in the loose and number eight Daniel Darcy providing a battering ram presence from the base of the scrum.

Belvedere were, for the most part, strangely lacklustre in their approach. Indeed, St Paul's centre Ryan Creedon kicked them into a 24th-minute lead after the losers had frustrated Belvedere with constant picking and driving in close. Belvedere were soon in the lead, however, when their powerful centre Gerard Doyle dived over after good work from full back David O'Reilly and right wing Mark Hewitt. O'Reilly converted.

It got even worse for St Paul's when the fast hands of number eight Gavin Murphy enabled O'Reilly to put left wing Brian McLoughlin fizzing around the cover on the stroke of half-time.

Five minutes into the second period, Creedon converted his second penalty following a clever chip into space by outhalf David Flynn.

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It took a tremendous tackle from Stokes on O'Reilly at the corner flag to prevent further damage to St Paul's hopes. However, this merely delayed Doyle's second try when he borrowed over under the posts for O'Reilly to convert.

The game was up but St Paul's persisted. Johnson, who had shown blistering pace throughout, sped to the line for an unconverted try with three minutes of normal time remaining.

BELVEDERE COLLEGE: D O'Reilly; M Hewitt, G Doyle, T Fahy, B McLoughlin; H Lord, B Carson; J Wickham, B McArdle, E O Griofa, T Peavoy, T Whelan, R Leyden, D O'Brien, G Murphy. Replacements: C Murphy for G Murphy (11 minstemp), M Hayes for O Griofa, P McGuire for McArdle (57 mins), C Murphy for Peavoy (49 mins), G Woodcock for O'Brien (68 mins).

ST PAUL'S COLLEGE: G Johnson; R Murphy, R Creedan, L Billings, S Lennon; D FLynn, Damian Fennelly; S McIllvenna, E Kidd, N Dennis, J Gallagher, P Byrne, P Dwane, B Stokes, D Darcy. Replacements: I Cheevers for Dennis (28 mins), A Nolan for Murphy (49 mins), M Leahy for Billings (58 mins).

Referee: T Redmond (ARLB).