BOTH sides deserve the highest praise for the quality of rugby they served up in gale force conditions at the Oakpark grounds in Carlow yesterday in the second round of the Leinster Schools Junior Cup.

Nobody will quibble with the drawn outcome. All the scoring came in the opening half when the very strong diagonal wind favoured Terenure, though they found themselves 3-0 down after three minutes when Roscrea's out half, Gavin Duffy, converted a penalty.

Terenure equalised from a penalty in front of the posts from out half Garret Enright and they led for the only time when, after 20 minutes, their superiority in the line out enabled the forwards to combine for Tony Byrne to touch down for an unconverted try.

Roscrea hit back four minutes before half time when following a fine passing movement, right wing Ian Kilroy crossed in the corner. Oddly, Roscrea never threatened the Terenure line in the second half with wind advantage, nor did they force a kickable penalty. The loss of their hooker, John Phelan, midway through the half hampered the pack. Terenure looked the more likely to score with some promising attacks which stretched the Roscrea defence.