Costello keeps St Mary's rumbling

The spell has been lifted. St Mary's finally overcame their nemesis of the 90s at Templeville Road on Saturday with a first competitive win over Terenure in six attempts dating back to January 1990.

The end-of-match jubilation was hardly ecstatic, in part the result of a disappointing affair and also because relief was perhaps the over-riding mood. Even then, the sense of satisfaction within the St Mary's camp was quickly dampened with news of AIL results elsewhere.

"They all went against us," said co-coach Hugh Maguire, reflecting particularly on the one-point victories for Lansdowne and Constitution. Yet, they still have their noses pressed against the door. In the event of them beating Galwegians on April 17th, then St Mary's require only one of the four above them to slip up. It's going to be close, but they should make the top four again.

Bizarrely, on Saturday, taking into account much of what had gone before in an always interesting but generally uninspired affair given there were nine internationals on the pitch, St Mary's even flirted with defeat after leading 19-6 three minutes into injury time.

Belatedly using their two most potent weapons, Eric Miller and Ciaran Clarke, in tandem, Terenure finally put Clarke into space courtesty of a brilliant left-to-right pass at the base of a scrum from the number eight which took out two opponents.

The recycled ball was moved infield for Michael Smyth to dance through the St Mary's midfield for a try under the posts. Referee Murray Whyte correctly penalised Peter Smyth for needlessly jumping on his try-scoring namesake on the restart and, amazingly, Clarke was battering through the midfield in the fifth minute of injury time. However, from ruck ball wide on the left with Clarke and Miller again queuing up in a well-populated midfield, Derek Hegarty darted on his own, was smothered and the steal of the season, maybe the century, was averted.

St Mary's had always looked the likelier winners, despite continually and curiously kicking to touch into the wind, thereby giving Terenure all bar two of the first-half throw-ins (James Blaney hit his man 23 times out of 24 in total) and much of the first-half territory.

However, Terenure are a disappointingly toothless side as a 6-3 interval buffer accurately indicated. They rarely created any space out wide, save for one instance when Girvan Dempsey was too deep to gather a beauty of a pass in front of him from Clarke. This is in part because they rarely utilise Clarke (or Miller) out far as of yore. Come back Paul Hennebry, all is forgiven.

Clarke looked in good nick too, though almost uniquely, Dempsey had a thoroughly off day after his intelligent and under appreciated performance against England. But generally, the policy of setting innumerable close-in targets meant for energy-sapping if small yardage gains and over-committing numbers to rucks. This either left Craig Fitzpatrick with no options outside him or came undone through one of a staggering 25 turnovers.

Miller, for his part, adorned the game with some classy touches though Victor Costello probably won this duel on points by dint of a bigger end product. Shunting Miller back five yards from a scrum pick-up inside the St Mary's 22 was one of several big hits. Another turnover tackle and trademark rumble from a scrum either side of a towering touchfind by Fergal Campion led to the out-half's drop goal.

This passage in turn followed the decisive Peter McKenna try, Kevin Nowlan counter-attacking off Hegarty's sliced box kick before Conor McGuinness switched and linked with Costello for John McWeeney to make the vital incision and try-scoring pass.

Though not firing like last season, St Mary's always had more of a cutting edge. Early notice of this came after Costello's superbly timed, delayed eighth-minute pass put Ray McIlreavy away, but the centre criminally neglected to offload to Dennis Hickie before being hauled down by Dempsey.

Predictably too, in another key respect, not only did Campion comfortably outkick Fitzpatrick from the hand, but compared to Campion's three place-kicks from three, both Fitzpatrick and Billy Tracey missed kickable 25 metre penalties.

Scoring sequence: 5 mins: Fitzpatrick pen, 0-3; 9: Campion pen, 3-3; 38: Tracey pen, 3-6; 47: McKenna try, Campion con, 10-6; 52: Campion drop goal, 13-6; 74: Campion pen, 16-6; 81: McIlreavy drop goal, 19-6; 84: Smyth try, Roche con, 19-13.

ST MARY'S: K Nowlan; J McWeeney, P McKenna, R McIlreavy, D Hickie; F Campion, C McGuinness (capt); J Maher, P Smyth, P Coyle, S Jameson, D Bourke, T Brennan, V Costello, M Cuddihy. Replacements: I Bloomer for Costello (temp, 21-23 mins), K McNamee for McIlreavy (51 mins), Bloomer for Bourke (77 mins), R Ormond for Campion (81 mins).

TERENURE: C Clarke; D Coleman, B Tracey, M Smyth, G Dempsey; C Fitzpatrick, D Hegarty; K Coleman, J Blaney (capt), J Campbell, R Sheriff, C Potts, G Hill, E Miller, P O'Malley. Replacements: B Kavanagh for O'Malley (58 mins).

Referee: M Whyte (Leinster).