Home Win Sends Garryowen To The Summit

Garryowen will head into the Christmas break as Division 1A leaders after they overcame St. Mary’s College at Dooradoyle on Saturday afternoon.

Tom Tierney’s men stunned the visitors with a try right from the kick-off with winger Cian O’Shea crossing on the left for an unconverted effort.

The Light Blues were clearly brimming with confidence and they were over the whitewash again in the seventh minute, this time experienced centre Conan Doyle applied the finishing touches.

The conversion followed from out-half Jamie Gavin and he punished a St. Mary’s offside with his first penalty of the afternoon, making it 15-0.

Gavin Dunne missed a long range opportunity to reply for the Dubliners, but they gradually improved as the first half wore on.

Gavin increased his influence with some good kicks out of hand and a second successful penalty, before St. Mary’s got on the scoresheet approaching half-time.

A knock on spoilt a promising move, but the defending champions regrouped and a pushover drive led to second row Ciaran Ruddock grabbing a much-needed five-pointer.

That score seemed to settle Hugh Hogan’s charges and they tagged on a late penalty through Dunne to cut the gap to 18-8 at the interval.

Scrum half Matt D’Arcy sniped through for a second touchdown for the visitors. The conversion was missed, but Garryowen were soon back in control courtesy of a 10-point surge.

A Gavin penalty goal was followed by a converted try from busy flanker Shane Buckley, who was teed up by a pinpoint kick from man-of-the-match Gavin.

St. Mary’s regrouped to hit back with a third try – this time flanker Kurt Haupt forced his way over for Dunne to convert. But they were unable to add to their tally late on as they went home pointless.

Referee: Michael Black (IRFU)