Blackrock were formally expelled from the Kitty O'Shea Leinster Championship last night. This follows the club's failure to fulfil their opening championship fixture against Greystones last Saturday week after having an appeal for a postponement, due to the unavailability of players, rejected.

Their case was referred by the Leinster Branch's executive committee to the competitions committee, which last night heard the views of Blackrock president Gaby Maguire and rugby committee director Bryan McLoughlin before taking the decision to expel them from the competition.

The committee was given little room for manoeuvre by the branch's own rules, and particularly rule G: "Failure, for any reason, to field a side in either competition on the appointed match day and time, will result in the automatic elimination of that team from the particular competition."

Hence, Blackrock's 37-24 defeat to St Mary's last Saturday in Section C will not now count.

Blackrock will probably not appeal the decision and will instead fulfil the remainder of their scheduled matches as friendlies.