Roscrea hold on

Cistercian, Roscrea 14 Castleknock 12Cistercian College laid the foundations for victory with a wonderful opening half performance at Portlaoise yesterday.

Although they were the lighter team they certainly took full advantage of a strong breeze and got an opening try from Des Lawlor after 10 minutes.

Austin Murphy converted, and he was on target again 10 minutes before half-time after Peter Durcan added a second try.

Despite Castleknock's best efforts they failed to score in the first half.

In the second half the Dublin side, now with the wind, showed a vast improvement. Captain Eoin Mullen led by example, scoring a great try after 10 minutes. Brian Collins added the conversion, and when Daniel O'Connor went over midway through the half it looked as if the revival had been complete.

But Collins was unable to convert, and in the closing 15 minutes Castleknock failed to stop Roscrea from claiming their place in this year's quarter-finals.

CISTERCIAN COLLEGE: C Egan; R Kerley, A Thompson, J Mescal, D Lynden; M Leahy (capt), N O'Brien; W Staunton, D Lawlor, P Durcan, G Boland, R Lee, A Murphy, R Campion, G Dolan. Replacements: D McNamara for R Kerley, N McCarthy for D Lynden.

CASTLEKNOCK: R Murphy; E Mullen, R O'Mahony, T Walsh, D Toner; A Quinn, E Cummins; A Hickey, D Stapleton, B Collins, D O'Connor, S MacKay, E Flanagan, B Mahon, J Davis. Replacements: P Conway for A Hickey, C Farrell for R Murphy.

Referee: A Acheson (Kildare)