Constitution have it all their own way

A BIT of a bloodless coup really. Already down to the bare bones, a further couple of withdrawals on the morning of the match gave St Mary's a skeletal look and left them ripe for the picking. Cork Constitution devoured them hungrily.

Temple Hill was thus deprived of a mouth-watering contest but most of the 1,500 crowd weren't complaining and certainly Cork Constitution weren't. As it transpired, this wasn't so much a proverbial four-pointer in the race for coveted top four places, as a six-pointer.

The swing of four points to the home side was hard enough for St Mary's to take. The real killer was the 76 point turnaround in the respective points' differences. This resulted in Cork Constitution usurping St Mary's and so moving into the top four at their visitors' expense on points differential, and given they also have a game in hand they look very well primed for a play-off place.

With St Mary's shorn seven first-teamers, it was probably never going to be a contest anyway, and was as good as over by the time Cork Constitution moved 15 points clear inside the first quarter.

It didn't help the visitors' cause that they coughed up two soft tries before the game had really settled: Brian O'Meara sauntered in unopposed from a line-out maul on the 22, and then a regulation 8-9-15 blind-side scrum move created the overlap for John Kelly.

Game over.

Ronan O'Gara tacked on 13 more wind-assisted points with the aid of a turnover try when looping around Kelly; and two sustained drives yielded further tries for Ken Murphy and Alan Byrne.

Rucking quickly, moving the ball smoothly across the line and usually running straight, they scattered St Mary's around the pitch. They've a lot of big target runners, and even the scrum-capped David Corkery didn't look out of place when stationed amongst the beefed up Mahonys in midfield.

Even a full-strength St Mary's front five struggled to contain their opposite numbers: Philip Soden had his best game of the season.

With the visitors having little physical impact in the back-row, the hard-hitting, hard-running Cork Constitution back-row wreaked huge damage.

Corkery was Dallaglio-like in playing as an auxiliary back, and scooped his third man-of-the-match award in a row.

After patrolling the touchline in increasingly forlorn fashion, the St Mary's co-coach Hugh Maguire had the bemused look of someone who had just taken a Corkery hit himself.

"In fairness to our lads we just had too much disruption too late in the week. We've taken a big hit today but there's nothing else for us to do but regroup and come back again."

Next up, a nice little handy one. That annual Dublin 6W little Templeogue spat with Terenure. These two would tear each other apart over a scotch egg on an airport tarmac, never mind an AIL encounter.

"Well, unfortunately that's always a difficult one for us. It's a vitaler for us, and I suppose it will be for Terenure, but it certainly won't be for want of effort and hopefully we'll have continuity in training and no more absences."

While all the unavailable will be expected to return, and would do so blindfolded on one leg, for St Mary's there is the salutary statistic that they've never beaten their local rivals in the League.

An overdue victory in that one and against Galwegians in the final round, preferably with a boost to their scoring differential, ought to be enough for St Mary's to reach the play-offs again. But this result has left them no margin for error.

St Mary's might well have struggled to win here in any case. Cork Constitution are the form team of the division, winning their last four. Indeed their only defeat in six was an unlucky late steal by Garryowen.

In this game, as in much else, things seem to be falling into place for them nicely.

In hindsight, it may have been no bad thing that their second round game against a then in-form Ballymena was postponed, given it was sandwiched by defeats to Lansdowne and Young Munster when short half a dozen firstteamers.

Aside from being back to fullstrength, the Cork Constitution co-coach Michael Bradley reckoned the other key factor was confidence.

"They're playing very well. They're confident, from 1 to 15, in fact from 1 to 18, because we're quite strong on the bench, and key performers are playing well, like O'Meara, O'Gara, Corkery, Walsh, O'Callaghan."

Two wins from a run-in against Clontarf (away), Ballymena (home) and Shannon (home) ought to be enough to procure a top-four place, and three wins should ensure a home semi-final.

Scoring sequence: 4 mins: O'Meara try, O'Gara con 7-0; 14: Kelly try 12-0; 19: O'Gara pen 15-0; 29: O'Gara pen 18-0; 27: O'Gara try, con 25-0; 45: Murphy try 30-0; 65: O'Gara pen 33-0; 76: Byrne try 38-0.

CORK CONSTITUTION: B Walsh; J Kelly, Conor Mahony, Cian Mahony, D O'Brien; R O'Gara, B O'Meara; P Soden (capt), F Sheehan, J O'Driscoll, D Sheehan, K Murphy, D Corkery, U O'Callaghan, J Murray. Replacements: D O'Callaghan for Murphy (50 mins), J Fogarty for Sheehan (65 mins), A Byrne for Cian Mahony (71 mins).

ST MARY'S COLLEGE: P McKenna; D Hickie, D Lyons, R McIlreavy, P Lane; E Gibney, C McGuinness (capt); J Maher, P Smyth, P Coyle, S Jameson, D Bourke, I Bloomer, K Jennings, G Quinn. Replacements: R Ormond for Gibney (half-time), E Byrne for Coyle (half-time), K McNamee for Lyons (62 mins), J Kilbride for McGuinmess (72 mins).

Referee: A Lewis (Leinster).