Sport

Students survive on scraps as late Hickey strike seals win

Buccaneers - 18 UCD - 21: UCD's capacity to live off scraps of possession served them admirably as they eked out a narrow but…

Mon Jan 07 2002 - 00:00

Buccaneers - 18 UCD - 21: UCD's capacity to live off scraps of possession served them admirably as they eked out a narrow but deserved victory over a wasteful Buccaneers side at Ericsson Park yesterday.

Nobody epitomised the UCD resolve better than scrumhalf Brian O'Riordan, whose eye for the gap, allied to his scorching pace, yielded two critical second-half tries.

He had the perfect accomplice in rangy outhalf Eoghan Hickey, who landed a prodigious drop-goal to secure the points eight minutes from the end.

For Buccaneers defeat probably ends their top-four aspirations but they only had themselves to blame for their inability to complement a surfeit of possession with an ounce of imagination.

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Having led by only 3-0 at the end of a first half which they dominated, Buccaneers seemed to have finally got their act together 11 minutes after the restart when impressive winger Ted Robinson finished off a well-executed move on the left.

But, almost immediately, O'Riordan discovered an accommodating gap from set-piece ball to reduce the deficit to 8-10 and then, on the threequarter mark, raced 35 yards along the touchline to put the students in front for the first time at 15-10.

Even still, Buccaneers' forward power seemed poised to be decisive as a Michael Devine try brought the score back level at 18-18, but a series of subsequent wrong options left them vulnerable. And so it was to prove when Hickey snatched an opportunist 38-yard dropped goal.

Scorers: Buccaneers - T Robinson, M Devine, tries; C Glynn pen, con; J Meagher pen. UCD - B O'Riordan two tries; E Hickey pen, drop-goal, con; S Moore drop-goal.

BUCCANEERS: C Glynn; M Devine, C Keane, W Wallace, T Robinson; J Meagher, C O'Louglin; R McCormack, J McVeigh, M Cahill, G Schoeman, N Smullen, I Dillon, C Rigney, E Brennan.

UCD: D McKenna, S McCarron, M Colling, S Moore, P Hickey-Dwyer; E Hickey, B O'Riordan, M Moynagh, K Corrigan, J Montgomery, N Breslin, P Callanan, A Carroll, P Shanley, T Carter. Replacements: M Venter for Montgomery 61 mins, C Keane for Callanan 61 mins, N Coughlan for O'Driscoll 65 mins.

Referee: J Sheehan (Munster).