Schools Rugby/McMullen Cup semi-final/Mount Temple - 16 St Patricks Navan - 7: Mount Temple hit the right note at Coolmine yesterday to book their place in the final of the Leinster Schools Senior Section A McMullen Cup.

The northsiders are keen to return to the glory days of the late 1990s when they won the competition in consecutive years.

And although both Hugh Gill and Max Rantz McDonald were casualties of a tough but clean contest, Temple still had enough up front to carry the day.

In particular, the display by the pack was exceptional. Adam Saborgi, operating at wing forward, continually closed down any proposed offensives from the Navan scrum, while number eight Stephen Boyle was almost impossible to contain.

In all, Temple's powerful driving from phased ball was to prove a big factor, despite a good display by their opponents.

St Patrick's certainly won some good ball in the line-out, while Neil Finlay - capped for Leinster at youths level - competed well in the rucks.

Conditions were perfect for yesterday's game and Temple got off to the best possible start after three minutes when second row Eoin McCabe took Jake O'Keefe's pass at full pace to make his way over the line.

The conversion, which came from Ian Denham, was the first of four successful kicks from the Mount Temple outhalf.

However, following McCabe's try, Mount Temple were forced to rejig their defence when Gill retired with a blood injury. And immediately Navan produced a strong spell, which resulted in two penalties.

Neither was converted and Mount Temple subsequently went into double figures when Denham landed a penalty on 24 minutes - after Navan had managed to keep Temple out in both corners.

St Patrick's did put Mount Temple under some serious pressure in the scrum before the half-time break, but, after venturing offside, were once more penalised on 31 minutes to allow Denham to hand Temple a 13-0 lead at the break.

Although Temple went further ahead on 53rd minutes through another Denham penalty, St Patrick's, Navan finished the game on a strong note and were rewarded with a late try from Neil Finlay, which was converted by Derek Curran.

MOUNT TEMPLE: P Murphy; H Gill, M Rantz-McDonald, J Gavin, D Reamsbottom; I Denham, S Glynn; J Carlyle, P Dawson, J O'Keefe; M Johnson, E McCabe; A Sabongi, G Predy, S Boyle. Replacements: S Byrne for Gill (5 mins); S O'Byrne for Rantz-McDonald (55); R Schilling for Carlisle (62); D Whelan for O'Keefe, E Ffrench for Dawson (65).

ST PATRICK'S, NAVAN: D Curran; N Matthews, P Flood, K Manning, S Eite; C O'Donoghue; M Byrne, D Mc Guinness, J Brennan, B Dunne; R Reilly, J O' Meara, T Clarke, N Finlay, B McKeever. Replacements: D Costello for Matthews (34 mins); C Kirwan for Costello, P Finnegan for Brennan, B Delahunt for Byrne (all 65).

Referee: T Duncan (ARLB).