Sparkling St Mary's outshine Clontarf

If St Mary's can keep up this kind of form for the rest of the season no other side is safe. Mind you few of the others will be as compliant as Clontarf who managed to have the game lost in the first half hour. Even though Clontarf did fight back eventually, St Mary's always looked to have enough in the tank to see off any challenge and the north Dublin side's game was riddled with errors.

The first of the errors came at the very start and ended with John McWeeney diving over with less than two minutes on the clock. Fergal Campion began what was to be a fruitful day for him with a fine kick - with five conversions, a try and a penalty. Tries by Peter McKenna and Peter Coyle both converted by Campion saw St Mary's run up a 21-0 lead as St Mary's pinned Clontarf back into their own half of the field and threatened to overrun them completely. In a rare excursion into Clontarf territory, Richie Murphy took the bare look off the scoreboard on 29 minutes with a drop goal, but Campion replied with a penalty. Clontarf finally got their act together when Pat Ward got the forwards moving and Richie Murphy carried it on before Mark Woods came in to polish off a very fine move which restored some Clontarf pride. Murphy's conversion brought the score to 24-10.

Clontarf really got going at this stage and a series of furious assaults on the St Mary's territories just before the break yielded nothing. St Mary's started the second half much as they had the first and a sparkling move from inside their own half saw the ball change hands several times before Ray McIlreavy dived over near the posts. Campion did the honours. again.

O'Reilly finally got the Clontarf line moving with some menace and he set up David Moore for a try which Richie Murphy converted and Campion and McWeeney went over for tries which, with a little help from Peter Smyth with a drop goal, brought the score to a highly impressive 46-point total.

Much of the damage was done by the St Mary's half-back partnership of Conor McGuinness and Campion.

Scoring Sequence: 2 mins: J McWeeney try, Campion conversion 7-0; 16: McKenna try, Campion conversion 14-0; 26: Coyle try, Campion conversion 21-0; 29: Murphy drop goal 213; 32: Campion penalty 24-3; 38: Woods try, Murphy conversion 24-10; 45: McIlreavy try, Campion conversion 31-10; 52: Moore try, Murphy conversion 31-17; 68: Campion try 36-17; 70: Smyth drop goal 39-17; 75: McWeeney try, Campion conversion 46-17.

Clontarf: M Woods; D McElligott, S Fitzsimons, M Smith, O Winchester; R Murphy, S Berti; H Hurley, B Jackman, P McQuillan; R Vorster, K Power, C Brownlie, P Ward; D Moore. Replacements: R Noblwe for McElligott (6 mins), R O'Reilly for Berti (half-time), W O'Kelly for Hurley (56 mins), T Meagher for McQuillan (60 mins), MCoughlan for Vorster (68 mins).

St Mary's: K Nowlan; J McWeeney, P McKenna, R McIlreavy, P Lane; F Campion, C McGuinness; J Maher, P Smyth, P Coyle; S Jameson, D Bourke, P Sullivan, M Cuddihy; V Costello. Replacements: E Gibney for (46 mins), I Bloomer for Bourke (58 mins), K Jennings for Sullivan (60 mins), E Byrne for Coyle (66 mins).

Referee: D Tyndall (Leinster).