Kilkenny College ... 26 Wesley College ... 10: Kilkenny College found their second wind to fight off a valiant comeback from Wesley College at Templeville Road yesterday.

Kilkenny got off to the best possible start in the first minute when centre Ian Condell burst through the middle to score under the posts.

Scrumhalf Graham Claxton converted, a feat he repeated on 25 minutes after the ball bad broken kindly for Sean Boland.

Wesley had two unsuccessful attempts on goal before the break, but from a third shortly after the restart came their first try.

After Kilkenny had spilled a penalty, Wesley were awarded a scrum inside the Kilkenny 22, and the combined efforts of the Wesley back row eventually led to scrumhalf and captain Mitch Darling making the Kilkenny line.

Darling was in for his second score a few moments later to leave Kilkenny holding onto to a slender 14-10 lead.

But Kilkenny replied strongly with tries from Wayne Greene and Claxton, the latter converting his own try to hand Kilkenny a 16-point victory.

WESLEY COLLEGE: A Fallon; S Jackson, J Ennis, R Murphy, J Veitch; H Micks, M Darling; D Mc Carthy, J McGann, B Stafford, G Hunt, S O' Kennedy, S McCann, G Baugh-Foley, D Lyons. Replacements: D Kerr for Mc Cann (45 mins).

KILKENNY COLLEGE: B Copeland; B Braitwaite, N Jay, I Condell, H Bagnall; D Brennan, G Claxton; D O' Brien, D Payne, K Hanbidge, W Whitford, J Boland, K Murphy, S Boland, P Stanley. Replacements: W Greene for K Murphy (40 mins).