Skerries Community College made the most of the running in this Leinster Schools' Junior Section A Cup quarter-final at the ALSAA complex yesterday.

Their influential outhalf John Gavin was the most creative and industrious player on the day and his opening try, coupled with a Seβn Dempsey penalty, carved out a convenient eight-point lead for the north county Dublin school.

Playing into the sun, Skerries put further distance between themselves and their willing opponents before the break when number eight Philip Matthews crossed the line to put his team into double figures.

The second half saw both Matthews and Gavin cross the Tallaght line once more but Tallaght began to make up some ground in the closing stages with back-row forward Rory Allen beefing up the attack.

In the dying seconds Tallaght got a deserved score when Luke Conway went over in the corner with Chris Burke converting in what proved to be the final action of a fine game.

SKERRIES CC: S Dempsey; R O'Conor, E O' Mahony, D Crowell, J Glennon; J Gavin, E Dempsey; R Murphy, D Lamont, R Connors, C Musgrave, E Mulligan, G Duffy, C Pierce, P Matthews. Replacements: S Canning, G Sambrooks, G O'Donoghue, K Keane.

TALLAGHT CS: P Courtney, S Flanagan, M Callaghan, S Whelan, L Bagnall, L Conway, C Burke; K Mc Donnell, B Doyle, A Grace, A Moore, G Shaughnessy, D O' Connor, G Donnelly, C Kelly. Replacements: R Allen, S Smyth, A Gaffney, F Keane, P Ormonde