TERENURE COLLEGE 13 CLONTARF 21, Lakelands Park
Scorers: Terenure College: Tries: John Dever, Kevin O’Neill; Pen: Jake Swaine
Clontarf: Tries: Matt D’Arcy 2; Con: Rob Keogh; Pens: Rob Keogh 3
HT: Terenure College 8 Clontarf 11
Defending champions Clontarf ended their three-match losing run with a determined 21-13 dismissal of bottom side Terenure at Lakelands Park.
Tries in each half from Ireland Club international captain Matt D’Arcy – taking his haul for the season to six – got ‘Tarf over the line, with ‘Nure’s late touchdown from scrum half Kevin O’Neill not even enough for a losing bonus point.
Former Ireland Under-20 international Harrison Brewer, who is back from a spell in New Zealand, featured in the back row for the hosts, while the Clontarf pack was back-boned by powerful young prop Vakh Abdaladze and Leinster lock Mick Kearney.
Full-backs Rob Keogh and Jake Swaine swapped penalties before D’Arcy burst through for his opening try early in the second quarter, following some neat interplay with his centre partner Michael Brown.
Keogh, who surprisingly missed the conversion, made amends with a 35-metre penalty on the half hour mark. However, Clontarf lost both Kearney and hooker Jonathan Larbey to the sin-bin in the closing stages of the first half and Terenure duly struck back.
A late lineout maul was finished off by lock John Dever out wide, reducing the deficit to 11-8 for half-time. James Blaney’s charges failed to fully stretch ‘Tarf, though, and they then lost their number 8 Eoin Joyce to a yellow card.
The scoreboard was untroubled apart from a Mick McGrath chance, before a powerful ‘Tarf scrum set up a 63rd minute penalty which Keogh brilliantly landed from long range.
He dropped another place-kick short of the posts, but D’Arcy came up trumps with his second try, diving over on the right for a well-worked 73rd minute score.
Terenure, who currently have Dublin Gaelic football star Kevin McManamon as part of their backroom team, had the final say when clever work by scrum half O’Neill from a maul on the right wing saw him touch down. However, summing up ‘Nure’s current struggles, Swaine was short with his conversion attempt and the hosts missed out on a losing bonus point.
TERENURE COLLEGE: Jake Swaine; Niall Thornton, Conor Finn, Marc Hiney, Robbie Murphy; James O’Donoghue, Kevin O’Neill; Kieran Moloney, Robbie Smyth, Conor McCormack, John Dever, Kyle McCoy, Harrison Brewer, James O’Neill, Eoin Joyce.
Replacements: Risteard Byrne, Cian Madden, Stephen Caffrey, Thomas Burke.
CLONTARF: Rob Keogh; Rob McGrath, Michael Brown, Matt D’Arcy, Mick McGrath; Mark Sutton, Peter du Toit; Vakh Abdaladze, Jonathan Larbey, Royce Burke-Flynn, Ben Reilly (capt), Mick Kearney, Michael Nooney, Adrian D’Arcy, Tony Ryan.
Replacements: Niall Carson, Karl Moran, Dylan Doyle, Sam Cronin, Jack Power.