Terenure forced to work hard

Schools Rugby/Terenure College 25, Mount Temple 12: On viewing the above result those not at Sydney Parade will be forgiven for believing Terenure simply got off to a sluggish start in their campaign.

Granted, they will need to significantly improve to win the competition, but the best side Mount Temple have ever produced pushed them really hard yesterday.

If the north Dublin school's lineout had functioned at all they could be sitting pretty in the quarter-finals today.

After the fright the Terenure forwards received when out-muscled for two second-half tries they will surely up their game for St Gerard's, another minnow school in a vintage year, on February 11th.

Mount Temple mauled them backwards right from the kick-off. They were awarded a penalty, for driving in from the side, and outhalf Ian Denham kicked decent field position. They launched Mark Johnson into the sky for a clean lineout take and were on their way.

The only problem for Mount Temple, however, was Johnson was clearly their only option out of touch. Terenure captain Stuart Dunlop (keeping the family dynasty alive) quickly realised this and disrupted every throw.

The first 15 minutes looked set to produce a heavy flow of one-way traffic. Full back Shane Durkin crossed for the first try on six minutes, after Cathal Morley broke the first line of defence with a clever line. Adam Hughes' golden boot added the extras. The winger's footwear lost its sheen a few minutes later when he sliced a penalty from in front of the sticks.

Terenure then camped for 10 minutes in the Mount Temple 22 until Kevin Gallagher was forced over from a lineout drive in first-half injury-time. Hughes cancelled the earlier miss with a quality conversion from way out.

He then added a penalty early in the second-half as Mount Temple seemed destined to fold up shop - such was the intensity of their defending few would have blamed them. In particular Sam O'Byrne, Max Rantz-McDonald and Stephen Boyle take a bow.

They refused to relent with tight-in tries from Glenn Predy and replacement flanker Adam Sabongi, both part of a marvellous forward unit in the face of physically superior opposition.

However, between those tries, Cillian Byrne's clever blind switch allowed him over for a try. Hughes then added some gloss to the scoreboard with another penalty five minutes from the finish.

Scoring sequence: 6 mins: S Durkin try, A Hughes con, 7-0; 35: K Gallagher try, A Hughes con, 14-0; Half-time: 14-0; 38: A Hughes pen, 17-0; 42: G Predy try, I Denham con, 17-7; 58: C Byrne try, 22-7; 62: A Sabongi try, 22-12; 65: A Hughes pen, 25-12.

TERENURE COLLEGE: S Durkin; A Hughes, C Morley, G Coffey, D Synnott; C Byrne, R Vij; C Moffat, J Whelan, D Quinn; C Diskin, S Dunlop (capt); M Mellotte, S Page, K Gallagher. Replacements: S Elliott for J Whelan (73 mins).

MOUNT TEMPLE: P Murphy; J Gavin, M Rantz-McDonald, S O'Byrne, D Reambottom; I Denham, S Glynn; J Carlyle, P Dawson, J O'Keeffe; D Whelan, E McCabe; M Johnson, S Boyle (capt), G Predy. Replacements: A Sabongi for D Whelan (half-time).

Referee: D Phillips (Leinster Branch).