Lansdowne's greater firepower up front, allied to the excellent place kicking of Rory Kearns, proved too much for neighbours Wanderers in the semi-final of the Smithwicks Old Belvedere Floodlit Cup at Anglesea Road last night. Lansdowne will now play Clontarf, who have also won the competition once before, in the final.

Wanderers enjoyed plenty of possession in the first quarter and led 6-3, courtesy of a drop goal and a penalty by their French out-half, Eric Olazabal.

However, by the half hour Lansdowne showed signs of warming to the task and after Kearns had landed his second penalty, Aron Freeman dived over from close range following good work by the excellent Colin McEntee.

Kearns added a conversion before slotting over his third penalty from wide on the left to give Lansdowne a 16-6 lead at half-time.

Olazabal cut the gap with a penalty at the start of the second half, but after Lansdowne centre Ray Niland won the race to his own kick ahead, seven minutes into the half, Wanderers were always playing catch-up. They did create some try scoring opportunities but too often their handling let them down.

And even when Lansdowne eased up somewhat, they could rely on Kearns, who converted all of his nine attempts , to keep them in the comfort zone.

A third penalty by Olzabal in the 51st minute and a try by Colin Leahy following a clever kick ahead by Gary Brennan still left Lansdowne 26-17 in front going into the final quarter.

They owned the ball for the last 10 minutes and ran out easy winners with late tries from scrum-half Stephen Brady and right wing Marcus Dillon.

Scorers: Lansdowne: A Freeman, R Niland, S Brady, M Dillon try each, R Kearns five penalties, four conversions; Wanderers: E Olazabal three penalties, drop goal, C Leahy try.

Lansdowne: B Quinn; M Dillon, R Niland, D O'Mahony, R Kearns; R Governey, S Brady; O Ennis, B McCoy, W O'Kelly, A Freeman, P O'Connor, S Rooney, A Forde, C McEntee. Replacements: S Cooney for Quinn (6 mins), B Carney for Cooney (46 mins), R Murray for McCoy (60 mins).

Wanderers: P Devitch; C Leahy, G Brennan, R Corrigan, D Finnegan; E Olazabal, A Rolland; K Ashmore, J O'Riordan, T Walshe, R Leahy, J O'Callaghan, C Cronin, S McEntee, K Leahy. Replacements: J Garth for Cronin (half-time), V Cunningham for Corrigan (54 mins).

Referee: S Buggy (ARLB).