Canavan in striking form

St Gerard's College ... 17 Gonzaga College ... 15The Irish Schools final trialist Shane Canavan landed a 68th-minute penalty that finally put Gonzaga College to the sword in a Leinster Schools' Section B Senior Cup second-round tie that crackled from start to finish at Donnybrook yesterday.

Gonzaga were, perhaps, slight favourites to emerge from this one and they got the dream start when right wing Rob O'Connor sprinted all the way to the posts from an interception around his own 22 metre line. Outhalf Michael Boland converted for a 7-0 lead after only three minutes.

Both sides looked to run into the spaces available and it led to some flowing rugby. This was emphasised in the 18th minute when the St Gerard's centre, Steven Monahan, flew onto a ball to breach the gain line. Hooker Robert Fullam and openside Aiden McGlinchey took it on for Canavan to put left winger William Roche over for an unconverted try.

The losers were winning some workable lineout ball, particularly from Gavin Dunne, but it was his second row partner Eoghan Tuite that set up their next try with a textbook take at the front. The ball was moved for centre Tommy Toomey to release O'Connor with a slick inside pass for the wing's second try. Boland hit the upright from the conversion.

Thereafter, St Gerard's applied most of the pressure and Gonzaga left wing Shane Hanratty's cover tackle on Roche was impressive. That did not prevent Canavan from nailing two penalties in the 27th and 32nd minutes to reduce the marging to 12-11 at the interval.

The accurate Canavan split the posts with his third penalty and Boland responded with a superb kick from fully 40 metres that had all the look of the winner. That was to reckon without the unflappable Canavan who applied the killer blow with a difficult kick from out on the right.

Scorers: St Gerard's College: W Roche try; S Canavan 4 pens; Gonzaga College: R O'Connor 2 tries; M Boland pen, con.

ST GERARD'S COLLEGE: M Campbell; G Fahy, S Monahan; M Moran, W Roche; S Canavan, A Scanlan; T O'Kane, R Fullam, L Sinagoga, Z Desmond, E Brady, M Barton, A McGlinchey, K Durkan.

GONZAGA COLLEGE: M Ryan; R O'Connor, T Toomey, A Peacock, S Hanratty; M Boland, G Cooney; B Gahan, R O'Byrne, N Morris, E Tuite, G Dunne, A Brennan, P Hennessey, K McLaughlin. Replacement: M O'Brien for Gahan 60 mins; C Dempsey for Peacock, N McDowell for O'Connor both 65 mins.

Referee: D O'Mahony (ARLB).