Blackrock climb towards Garryowen

Blackrock College may only be eighth in Division One but this welcome win moved them to within two points of fourth placed Garryowen at Stradbrook on Saturday.

"That puts us up there. The bonus point was important. We have Galwegians away and St Mary’s at home to play," said Blackrock coach Kevin West.

"It has taken us three games to get the mix right between the club players and the representative players. We’re just going to keep pressuring the teams above us," he said.

That certainly was the key to putting another dent in UCD’s title challenge. Irish internationals Bob Casey and Paul Wallace exerted fierce pressure at the line out and scrum respectively to thwart a college side that looked to be in a health position as out half Eoghan Hickey landed two monster kicks to reduce the half time deficit from 20 8 to 20 14 by the 44th minute.

However Blackrock answered the questions put to them with second half trys from scrum half Ben Willis and deserved Man of the Match Gavin McCarthy to add to their first half touchdowns from centre Gary Brown and leftwing James Ferris. This gave them a crucial bonus point.

For their part, UCD are beginning to wilt as the bigger clubs get more use out of their representative players.

They simply did not have the physical wherewithal to last the eighty minutes on Saturday.

Scorers: Blackrock College G. McCarthy, B. Willis, J. Ferris, G. Brown try each; C. Kilroy 2 pens., 3 cons.

UCD S. McCarron try; E. Hickey 5 pens.

BLACKROCK COLLEGE: N. Turner; A. O’Neill, G. Brown, D. Quinlan, J. Ferris, C. Kilroy, B. Willis, I. McLaughlin, S. Byrne, N. Treston, L. Cullen, J. Fitzgerald, D. O’Brien, R. Woods, G. McCarthy. Replacements: B. Casey for Fitzgerald (40 mins.), P. Wallace for Treston (53 mins.)

UCD: D. O’Sullivan; S. McCarron, M. Colling, P. Hickey Dwyer, P. Bredin, E. Hickey, B. O’Riordan, S. McCullough, D. Blaney, M. Venter, P. Callanan, N. Breslin, A. Carroll, T. Carter, D. Dillon. Replacements: N. Coughlan for Carter (38 mins.)

Referee: C. Stanley (Leinster).