Young Munster are stung by St Mary's

The sight of black and amber-clad bodies being shunted backwards and sideways was a sobering sight and offered a first indication of the commitment and substance that St Mary's College mustered at Clifford Park on Saturday.

That it occurred in the first scrum of the match highlighted the intent and focus of the visitors. Munsters would recover in the tight but despite referee Gordon Black awarding two penalties against St Mary's tight-head Emmet Byrne for "popping", there can be no doubt that the Dublin team shaded that particular contest.

St Mary's won the majority of personal battles and operated with greater purpose and potency. Their cause was helped by a spiralling error count which undermined everything Young Munster tried to achieve. This was most manifest behind the scrum where the only gambit appeared to be detailing Mick Lynch to pop up on the crash ball: Ray McIlreavy could hardly believe his good fortune.

Passes were dropped or ball carelessly flung away or spilled in contact. In mitigation St Mary's scored three excellent tries and certainly possessed the wherewithall to cut through their opponents, using pace and guile.

Initially they attacked close in through the excellent John Maher, Emmet Byrne, Peter Smyth (he had a superb debut in the loose), Steve Jameson and Dan Bourke but the most effective buttress was Victor Costello, shrugging tacklers aside and creating space for others.

This stopped the Munsters' defence fanning out and once that was achieved the visitors simply switched the focus of attack to incorporate their backs. Peter McKenna adapted very well to his new role in the centre, passing crisply, while out-half Richard Ormond demonstrated the value of hard work, with an excellent return from the place-kicking duties.

The link between these two patterns of play was openside flanker Mark Cuddihy, appreciably the game's outstanding performer. His work-rate, tackling, support play and footballing intelligence mark him as a lynchpin to the game St Mary's try and patent.

St Mary's began briskly with captain Conor McGuinness showing some of the form that has eluded him recently for Ireland. Having twice recycled possession Mary's rumbled into the Munsters half, and when the ball was presented again, McGuinness darted through a sea of bodies, skirted Sean McCahill and touched down behind the posts for a fine try.

Ormond converted as he would do again in the 13th minute when the visitors scored a second try. Again McGuinness was the instigator switching play to the shortside, Kevin Nowlan took the pass, looped outside McKenna and sent McWeeney cantering over.

Suitably stunned Munsters gradually asserted a presence and with the pack in the van created a penalty opportunity which Aidan O'Halloran converted and then closed the deficit further on 31 minutes with a try from Peter Clohessy: Denis O'Meara's lineout take eight metres out provided the platform for a controlled rolling maul.

Having accomplished the hard part, the home side then self destructed, allowing Ormond to kick a penalty after a silly lineout infringement and then standing transfixed as McGuinness tapped a quick penalty 40 metres out. Costello and Smyth twice combined to send McIlreavy over.

St Mary's killed off the game on the re-start when referee Black awarded a penalty try after Kelvin McNamee was hauled down by Ger Earls as he appeared to be comfortably winning the race following his own hack-on. Ormond's conversion took St Mary's out of sight and it hardly mattered that McCahill crossed for a try.

Scoring Sequence: 6 mins: McGuinness try, Ormond conversion, 0-7; 13: McWeeney try, Ormond conversion, 0-14; 20: A O'Halloran penalty, 3-14; 31: Clohessy try, 8-14; 36: Ormond penalty, 8-17; 40: McIlreavy try, Ormond conversion, 8-24; 44: penalty try, Ormond conversion, 8-31; 66: McCahill try, A O'Halloran conversion, 15-31.

Young Munster: S McCahill; D O'Dowd, M Lynch, N O'Meara, P Boland; A O'Halloran, M Prendergast; D Clohessy, M Hayes, P Clohessy (capt); M O'Halloran, D O'Meara; B Buckley, D Edwards, G Earls. Replacement: M Fitzgerald for D Clohessy 48 mins.

St Mary's: K Nowlan; J McWeeney, P McKenna, R McIlreavy, K McNamee; R Ormond, C McGuinness (capt); J Maher, P Smyth, E Byrne; S Jameson, D Bourke; M Reilly, V Costello, M Cuddihy. Replacement: Bloomer for Bourke 71 mins.

Referee: G Black (Leinster).