AIB LEAGUE St Mary's College 24 Clontarf 7:BERNARD JACKMAN has surely never gone through a day quite like it. The day ended on the perfect note with the international hooker coming on as a second-half substitute in Leinster's astonishing 30-0 demolition of Munster at the RDS.
If that situation was almost surreal, so was the scene 27 minutes into Clontarf’s opening game in their quest to at long last capture the AIB All-Ireland League title. Now coached by Jackman, Clontarf had gone into Saturday’s Templeville Road encounter against St Mary’s College as leading contenders following their heartbreaking and controversial near miss in last season’s competition.
No doubt, they can and will fight back in a Division One A campaign that is bound to have its share of twists and turns, but Clontarf cannot afford many days like this. Effectively, the game had been decided with St Mary’s racing into a 24-0 lead within the opening 27 minutes.
A frustrated Jackman watched St Mary’s run in four tries for the bonus point. Quite rightly, he didn’t try to make excuses before departing to concentrate on his main job with Leinster at the RDS.
He said: “We were outmuscled and outplayed by a very good Mary’s side, so it’s back to the drawing board. We made a lot of errors and were duly punished. We have a massive improvement to make, starting with next weekend’s home match against Dolphin.”
Securing a victory will be far from straightforward, given Dolphin’s opening success over Cork Constitution.
But everyone wanted a very open and competitive situation in the new set-up to the AIB League, and that, hopefully, is what they are going to get. Take St Mary’s. Having only just missed out on the play-offs last season, they must feel they have a real chance of challenging for the title.
Clearly, next weekend’s visit to a Shannon side determined to bounce back following their narrow defeat to Garryowen will reveal a good deal.
In the meantime, the Templeville Road outfit have a lot to feel good about. They can call on some very talented young players, with secondrow Robin Copeland catching the eye as he crossed for two tries and nearly got another.
Their other tries came from wings Darragh Fanning and Ronan Doherty, with fullback Gavin Dunne recruited from UCC, contributing two conversions.
To complete a good day for the Sexton family, Mark featured in the St Mary’s centre before older brother Jonathan did his stuff at outhalf for Leinster on Saturday evening at the RDS.
Importantly, St Mary’s also look to have a good bench with the experienced Stephen Grissing coming on as a second-half substitute for Sexton and former Leinster hooker Gavin Hickie replacing the impressive Richie Sweeney.
Just about the only disappointment for stand-in coach Ciarán Potts was an injury to talented flanker Paul Nash.
Perhaps, in an ideal world, the home side would not have conceded a second-half try from Clontarf wing Seán Carey, converted by Martin Dufficy, but Potts could have few complaints.
“We really took our chances in the first half, and that’s something we must continue to do.
“This is going to be a very open league, you have to target your home games and hope to win a few on the road. Come the end of the season, there will be five or six teams still in it.”
ST MARY'S: G Dunne; R Doherty, P Brophy, M Sexton, D Fanning; S McCarthy, J Burns; C McMahon, Richie Sweeney, Rob Sweeney, G Logan, R Copeland, D Hall, P Nash, J Hogan (capt). Replacements: B O'Flanagan for Nash (25 mins), K Carroll for McMahon (50 mins), S Grissing for Sexton (53 mins), C Donohoe for Dunne, G Hickie for Sweeney (both 73 mins).
CLONTARF: D O'Shea; S Carey, H Bryce, K Lett, C De Chenu; M Dufficy, H Nolan; C Kavanagh, A Dundon, N Treston, S Watson, B Reilly, S Crawford (capt), B Focus, P Mallon. Replacements: P Howard for Nolan (30 mins), M Keating for De Chenu, M Garvey for Watson, J Wickham for Kavanagh (all 40 mins), N Carson for Dundon (50 mins).
Referee: A Rolland.
Keeshan seals win for Dolphin
TO complete a dramatic weekend, Dolphin snatched a 13-12 Musgrave Park victory over arch-rivals Cork Constitution with a drop-goal from Barry Keeshan in injury-time on Saturday.
Not quite the start Cork Con wanted, particularly after they had taken an early lead with a Tom Gleeson try, converted by Richard Lane. After watching Con miss further opportunities, Dolphin hit back to lead at half-time through a penalty try, converted by Keeshan, and a penalty from the same player.
A Frank Cogan try two minutes after the interval restored Cork Con's lead, only for Keeshan to land the winning drop goal.
At Thomond Park, Blackrock made a promising start to their campaign, beating UL Bohemians 10-3. The crucial second-half try came from highly-rated former schools star Andrew Conway, with John Power adding the conversion and kicking the penalty.
Young Munster and Old Belvedere both made impressive starts to Division One B. Alan Kingsley proved the key figure for Young Munster in their 23-3 home success over Buccaneers, contributing a try and two penalties, while wing Dave Mongan scored a hat-trick of tries in Old Belvedere's 24-3 Anglesea Road victory over UCC.
The remaining two Division One B games were much closer, Galwegians edging out Dungannon 15-13 at Glenina, and Ballymena beating Ulster rivals Ballynahinch by the same score at Eaton Park.
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