Constitution undermined

Cork Constitution were consigned to another home defeat at Temple Hill as DLSP claimed their first victory of the season.

Constitution, fielding a virtual second string in the absence of their nine IRFU contracted players, always struggled to come to terms with the visitors who were comfortable winners despite some wayward kicking in the early stages.

DLSP scored tries instead and touched down twice, through flanker Sean McCarthy and wing Mark McGuinness, to take a 10-0 lead before the home side finally got points on the board with a Conor Mahony penalty in the 32nd minute.

DLSP switched kicking duties from Jason Critchley to Damien McCabe and the new boots did the trick as DLSP added six points to their total before Mahony pulled a penalty back in first-half injury-time. DLSP, however, went into the break 16-6 to the good.

Mahony closed the gap again with a 45th minute penalty. But they lost scrumhalf Alan O'Sullivan to the sin bin along with DLSP hooker Arron Davis as tempers boiled over in the 53rd minute.

McCabe sent over another penalty on the hour and the game was up two minutes later when Romanian wing Mihai Vironeau intercepted inside the opposition half and raced free to score under the posts.

CORK CONSTITUTION: B Walsh, R Conneally, D Dillon, Cian Mahony, D Johnson, Conor Mahony, A O'Sullivan; A Murray, D Murray, J O'Driscoll, K Murphy, S O'Connor, B Cahill, J Murray, U O'Callaghan. Replacements: C Murray for Cian Mahony (24 mins); J Sheehan for Johnson (55 mins), R O'Donovan for Cahill (64 mins), F Cogan for Murphy (72 mins).

DLSP: E Devitt, M McGuinness, J Critchley, D McCabe, M Vironeau, S Broughton, M Cross; K Condron, A Davis, D Masters, P McDonnell, R Candlin, A Toher, S McCarthy, J Deen. Replacements: E Moore for Condron (51 mins), A Neary for Toher (58 mins), D O'Riordan for Critchley (73 mins), B Hogan for Cross (78 mins).