Blackrock made to earn their date with destiny

Leinster's finest rugby nursery, Blackrock College, yesterday produced their first Senior Schools' Cup finalists since the exceptional vintage of 1996 led by Barry Gibney, and all is nearly right again with the world down Williamstown way.

That said, they were made to sweat for it in a manner hardly credible after some one-sided opening skirmishes. Where other sides may have chucked in the towel, St Mary's regrouped in typically resilient and irreverent fashion to produce one of those cheeky against-the-odds performances for which they are rightly renowned.

Experiencing a second successive semi-final defeat at Lansdowne Road must be hard to take, but as with their high-quality defeat by Clongowes at the same stage last year, St Mary's have nothing to feel ashamed of. Once again, they've been good for the cup.

In response to a 15-0 deficit, to conjure up their mesmerising second-quarter comeback, when they bagged two tries to make a real game of it, was a brilliant effort sprinkled with edge-of-the-seat running rugby. Their second try will rank as one of the best of the season, period, at the venue.

Besides, the psychological scars they helped to inflict on poor Belvedere in the quarter-final will run deeper. Then their prodigious spiritual leader Gavin Jennings - the individual player of the competition - had taken even Boys' Own schools' rugby into the realms of fantasy with his winning try in the seventh minute of injury time.

But even in the immediate aftermath of that stirring climax, the feeling persisted amongst the cognoscenti that Belvedere's pack might have been better equipped than St Mary's to meet Blackrock's imposing challenge head-on.

Nothing about the first quarter dispelled that view. Lording the line-outs through their impressive locks John MacGovern and Robert Lacey, and driving back St Mary's in the mauls and the scrums, they unleashed a double whammy which had them 12-0 up inside seven minutes.

First off, appropriately, they opted for an early attacking lineout and were rewarded when flanker and captain Tom O'Donohoe was driven over from Lacey's take. Better still swiftly followed when out-half Andrew Frame knifed through and though held up short, the ruck ball was quickly presented for tight-head John Montgomery to plough over; Paul Drew converting.

It wasn't just pack power which impressed, a talented Blackrock back-line of footballers were spinning the ball wristily and crisply in the manner of old, as legend has it. Outside of Frame, nimble inside centre John Ronan caught the eye, as did Irish schools' full back Drew.

In truth, there really were so many players who rose to the occasion that you could almost cite all 30 of them in a positive sense. And after Drew extended Blackrock's lead in between missed penalties by Kieran Lewis, gradually a crop of blue-shirted St Mary's players influenced proceedings.

Playing almost exclusively through the hand and moving the ball away from the backs as swiftly and often as possible, St Mary's gamely off-loaded in the tackle or off the deck for the supporting runners. It wasn't quite catch-up, but it was a high-risk, and high-yielding strategy which threatened to turn the game completely on its head.

No-one ran with more purpose and potency than the strong-running and elusive right-winger James Norton, who created a buzz of anticipation every time he received the ball.

Extracting something out of nothing with a blindside chip, Norton was then twice involved in repeated bursts at the Blackrock line before scrum-half Paul Madden scored American Football-style when taking the aerial route to the ruck in front of him.

With Jennings working hard through the pain barrier, his fellow back-rowers Louis Burke and Brian Brophy took up the gauntlet to run at Blackrock with repeated effect. They seemed to be everywhere, particularly in one compelling 50-metre drive which explored both flanks and the middle during a passage of at least eight rucks.

Having begun with a rare enough line-out drive of their own on half-way, it eventually ended with Madden, Brophy and Norton going blind before the inspired winger off-loaded expertly for lock Kenny McArdle to score in the corner.

Blackrock regrouped at the break and re-asserted a measure of their earlier control. Textbook passing along the backs and Ronan's eager chase of an Alex Cahill chip ahead earned a penalty chance for Drew, and though he missed that one, as did Frame with a drop goal opportunity, Drew pulled Blackrock two scores clear with a 57th-minute penalty.

It was the only score of a second period which was no less absorbing for all that. Not for wilting, St Mary's came back some more at the end, but the contest ended as fittingly as it began with Blackrock flanker mark Cooney covering across the pitch to reluctantly ensnare David O'Sullivan into touch at the end of another expansive move.

Scoring sequence: 2 mins: O'Donohoe try 5-0; 7: Montgomery try, Drew conversion 12-0; 20: Drew penalty 15-0; 27: Madden try 15-5; 34: McArdle try 15-10; 57: Drew penalty 18-10.

Blackrock College: P Drew; C Buckley, G Brown, J Ronan, A Cahill; A Frame, J Walsh; P Dowling, D Laide, J Montgomery, J MacGovern, R Lacey, M Cooney, S Fallon, T O'Donohoe (capt).

St Mary's College: D O'Neill; J Norton, K Lewis, S Nagle, P Costelloe; D O'Sullivan, P Madden; C Barry, K Rynhart, B Moran, C Queenan, K McArdle, L Burke (capt), B Brophy, S Jennings. Replacements: K Daly for Queenan (58 mins); E Higgins for Jennings (66 mins).

Referee: D Courtney (Leinster).