St. Mary’s College suffered their first defeat of the season in Ulster Bank League Division 1B as Dublin University triumphed 20-14 in a fast-paced encounter at College Park tonight.
The first ever floodlit league game at the city centre venue saw St. Mary's take an early lead, their back-line clicking into gear and Ireland Sevens international Terry Kennedy won the race to his own chip through after linking well with Ray Crotty.
Young out-half Sean Kearns, who missed the conversion, swiftly landed a penalty from the 10-metre line for 8-0, but Trinity launched themselves forward from a scrum penalty and out-half Jack McDermott broke through under the posts for his third try in two games.
The impressive McDermott converted and was also successful with two penalties, the second of them on the stroke of half-time for a 13-8 turnaround.
St. Mary's lacked the precision they had showed in their three previous victories, and really missed the influence of the Leinster-tied Darragh Fanning. They emerging pointless from a series of visits to the Trinity 22 and the fired-up students made them pay.
Sandwiched in between two Kearns penalties for the visitors was a terrific try from Trinity scrum half Angus Lloyd, who touched down following a magical, mazy run from USA international winger Tim Maupin.
McDermott's conversion was followed by Kearns' third penalty of the night, and despite a strong finish from St. Mary's (ex-Munster centre Ivan Dineen unfortunately lacked support during their best attack), Trinity stood firm to move up to fifth in the table. The losing bonus point has St. Mary's in third place.
Referee: Nigel Correll (IRFU)