The D’Arcy twins, Matt and Adr
Aran Egan, Trinity’s scoring star against UCC last week, landed three penalties but they found scores hard to come by against Andy Wood’s power-packed team.
Clontarf captain Matt D’Arcy ripped the ball away in a tackle, inside his own half, and embarked on a lung-busting run to register a second-minute try, converted by Leinster’s David Hawkshaw.
A knock-on near the try-line foiled Trinity as they failed to take advantage of the subsequent sin-binning of ‘Tarf flanker Martin Moloney.
Instead, while the students’ Leinster Academy hooker Lee Barron was in the bin, ‘Tarf skipper D’Arcy’s well-judged kick was chased down by winger Cian O’Donoghue for a 28th-minute try.
Egan clawed it back to 12-3 at the break, and after Trinity had a try ruled out on the resumption, another penalty from the young out-half cut the gap to just six points in the 52nd minute.
Hawkshaw coolly cancelled out Egan’s latest kick, four minutes later, and Clontarf were able to strike again when a try-scoring opportunity presented itself.
After Alex Soroka blocked down an attempted clearance, the visitors piled on the pressure. Despite losing Michael Courtney to the bin, Matt D’Arcy managed to release his sibling Adrian for a result-sealing try with 12 minutes remaining.
Hawkshaw and Egan swapped further penalties during the final minutes, but Clontarf were already assured of their sixth win on the trot, which has them five points clear at the summit.