ST MARY'S College, holders of the Leinster Senior Cup, surrendered the trophy when they failed to surmount the opening challenge against Lansdowne on their own ground at Templeville Road last night. Victory gave Lansdowne a place in the quarter-finals and a meeting with Wanderers at Lansdowne Road next Saturday.
This defeat completed what has been a miserable few weeks for St Mary's, whose challenge for the All Ireland League collapsed in the closing stages of the competition when they drew one and lost three of their last four matches. Ironically the draw in the league was attained against Lansdowne.
Both sides last night were depleted because of injuries, and in this respect St Mary's were harder hit, and it showed, most notably in the second period when Lansdowne got completely on top and reaped the tangible reward in the form of 18 points without reply.
While it was not an encounter of quality, with heavy rain inducing handling errors, it was never less than an interesting match marked by a few quality tries, none more so than Lansdowne's in the 78th minute, when Michael Kearin finished off a superb diagonal break by Lansdowne left wing Darragh O'Mahony.
St Mary's had the better of a first half during which fortune fluctuated and both sides led twice. Lansdowne had opened the scoring with a try from Alan Reddan when the St Mary's defence was exposed. But with Steve Jameson and Malcolm O'Kelly giving St Mary's the edge in the line out, they enjoyed territorial advantage. Nor did it help Lansdowne's cause that too often unforced errors spoiled attacking opportunity.
Fergal Campion gave St Mary's a one-point lead when he kicked two penalty goals before Kearin found the range with a similar effort to edge Lansdowne two points clear six minutes from half-time. Then Campion got a fine try two minutes later after his side won a line out and he made a telling break to score under the posts. He converted and St Mary's led 13-8 at the interval.
Lansdowne, always the more menacing side behind the scrum and well marshalled from scrum half by Fergus Aherne, were well on top in the second half. Paul O'Connor asserted some authority in the line out and the work of the forwards gave them the attacking positions on which they eventually capitalised.
They regained the lead with an opportunist try from O'Mahony in the 49th minute after St Mary's failed to clear a kick deep into their right corner and Kearin kicked a superb conversion. From that point on Lansdowne looked the likely winners, although the home side defended with some resolution.
It was not until Kearin kicked a penalty in the 67th minute that Lansdowne stretched their tenuous advantage of two points to five. Kearin removed any semblance of doubt about the result when he kicked another penalty in the 75th minute and completed a very productive night's work - he ended with a personal tally of 16 points - with that try created on O'Mahony's initiative.
