No one has ever wanted to meet De La Salle in the first round. And in Donnybrook yesterday, a far more capable and balanced Terenure were certainly shaken although never quite toppled by the determined Churchtown side.
Trailing 21-0 with the second half already ticking out, the persistence of De La Salle slowly paid off, most significantly with the growing influence of captain Eoghan Hickey. In the space of eight minutes, he picked up two push-over tries with the sort of form that's made him Leinster's choice at outhalf.
Unfortunately for De La Salle, however, the highly-fancied Terenure weren't quite willing to surrender the upper hand they held throughout. From the boot of David McAllister, they were two penalties up after 12 minutes, and with the superb mobility of Leinster representatives Brian Blaney and Richard Gernon in the forwards, and the pace of Mark Duffy at full back, it was obvious they would threaten a lot more.
Then on 18 minutes, Duffy broke from inside his own half, passed inside to winger Graham Crawford, and suddenly Terenure had the opening try. Nothing De La Salle could have done about that.
Not long after, an equally impressive run by scrum-half Robbie Sparks saw him dart through a momentary lapse in the De La Salle defence for try number two. That left them 16 points clear at the break.
De La Salle slipped further behind when Crawford made them pay for some more slack tackling. He sneaked he ball out of a scrum for their third try just minutes after the restart and that ended it as a contest, though not quite as a game.
While Crawford added a third try, De La Salle maintained their dominance in the line-out, picking up a late try from Keith Tate to follow Hickey's two. Yet Terenure underlined their strength as Blaney put in the last word with the final score of the game.
Scoring sequence: 2 mins: McAllister penalty, 3-0; 12 mins: McAllister penalty, 6-0; 18 mins: Crawford try, 11-0; 24 mins: Sparks try, 16-0; 38 mins: Crawford try, 21-0; 45 mins: Hickey try, 215; 52 mins: Hickey try, 21-10; 57 mins: Crawford try, McAllister conversion 28-10; 64 mins: Taite try, 28-15; 68 mins: Blaney try, 33-15.
TERENURE COLLEGE: M Duffy; S King, D Dunlop, B Flynn (capt), G Crawford; D McAllister, R Sparks; K Mahony, B Blaney, J Keogh, R Gernon, R McDonnell, J Barretto, R Hegarty, A Kelly. Replacements: M Mahony for Sparks (40 mins), K Jones for McAllister (60 mins), J Lee for Keogh (68 mins).
DE LA SALLE, CHURCHTOWN: J D'Alton; C Keegan, P Young, M Dormer, P Cleary; E Hickey (capt), D McNamara; K Taite, P Maguire, A Byron, A Boland, B Corish, R Frew, R Gallagher, R Neary. Replacements: C Ruddy for Corish (half-time), C Fitzgerald for Taite (65 mins).
Referee: A Baird (ARLB).
