Doherty's intervention is devine

Neither Lansdowne nor Blackrock lived up to the promise of their first outings in this year's All-Ireland League, and last night's match was only memorable for a late, well-taken try by Lansdowne full back Brian Doherty.

All eyes were on Lansdowne outhalf Alan McGowan who moved from Blackrock to the Ballsbridge club for this year's campaign. While McGowan kicked just two penalties in the first half, his line-kicking throughout the match was exemplary.

In the second half, Blackrock's forwards were far superior and kept Lansdowne pinned back near their own 22, but they failed to take advantage of their almost total territorial control during this period while some very easy penalty misses by Blackrock captain Nathan Turner let Lansdowne off the hook.

The match changed totally when a fine break by Lansdowne saw them set up a ruck situation just 10 metres from the Blackrock line. A series of rucks saw the ball spread wide and Doherty joined the attack with a fine inside break wide out to score under the posts. McGowan converted to copperfasten the victory.

In the first half, McGowan gave Lansdowne an early lead with a penalty from 35 metres and just before half-time he landed another finely-struck penalty.

However, just on half-time Turner scored his first penalty from just outside the 22 to leave the sides on 6-3 at half-time. McGowan and Turner exchanged penalties after the break before Doherty's intervention decided the match.

LANSDOWNE: B Doherty; R Dolan, D O'Mahony, A Magro, L O'Brien; A McGowan, S Whelan; E Bohan, A Ronan, A McKeen, S O'Connor, G Quinn, S Rooney, L Toland, A McCullen.

BLACKROCK: J Corry; A O'Neill, N Turner (capt), D Quinlan, G Browne; E Farrell, D Popplewell; I McLoughlin, G McEvoy, N Treston, J Fitzgerald, S Fallon, D McGettigan, R Woods, M Carroll. Replacements: M Price for E Farrell, B Willis for Popplewell, P Wallace for Treston, B Casey for Farrell, G McCarthy for McGettigan.

Referee: Paul Eakin (Ulster Branch)