OLD BELVEDERE have a mountain to climb to avoid relegation, if the evidence of Saturday's game at Rosbrien is a reliable yardstick.
They were soundly thrashed by an Old Crescent side that dominated from the first whistle and were in no way flattered by their winning margin.
Some of their five tries were beautifully executed, but Old Belvedere made their task a lot easier by some slipshod tackling and a general lack of organisation.
Crescent, on the other hand, had a compact scrum, dominated the lineout through John Forde and Dara Kirby and were much quicker in the loose, where skipper Liam Toland was always conspicuous.
Stephen Tuohy and Billy Treacy exchanged early penalty goals before the floodgates opened in Crescent's favour. By half time they were 27-3 ahead thanks to two tries each by John Forde and Barry O'Neill, while Stephen Tuohy regularly found the target with both conversion and penalty shots.
Belvedere used a strong wind in the second half to gain something of a foothold in Crescent territory, but even then it took them 30 minutes to open their try scoring account. Kevin Spicer forced his way over and Treacy converted to make it 27-10.
