Limited Buccs lose out

A STRONGER ST. MARY"S COLLEGE defeated a willing but limited Buccaneers 21-6 in their AIB League Division One game at sodden Dubarry Park, Athlone, on Saturday. Victory keeps the Dubliners very much involved in the business end of the table yet Buccs, who came away empty-handed from this tough battle, hold on to 11th position with just three rounds of fixtures remaining. Buccaneers fielded the same starting fifteen for this 'Ganly"s of Athlone' sponsored fixture as in their previous home game when they won comfortably against Terenure College. St. Mary"s were without their leading contracted players too but, unusually for a metropolitan club, they brought decent sized vocal support who headed back to the city in good spirits after their trip to Athlone. It took the game some time to settle into a pattern before St. Mary"s profited on the double from a rash Simon Rolleston tackle on his opposite number. The home out-half spent ten minutes in the sin-bin while Barry Lynn opened the visitors" account with the resultant 16th minute penalty. Soon afterwards, St. Mary"s came close to stretching their advantage. Lynn kicked ahead from inside his own half and Mark Bruce secured possession for the home side but he was tackled by a player who was clearly ahead of the kicker. Subsequently, Bruce was forced to take the ball back over his own line, conceding a five-metre scrum from which St. Mary"s got the ball wide to Darragh Fanning, but the diminutive Bruce got to grips with the big winger to shunt him into touch close to the home line. Paul Nash"s high tackle on Kevin Moran after 25 minutes gained no benefit for Buccs; Alan Gaughan was off-target with the kickable penalty while the flanker escaped joining Rolleston in the sin-bin. Nash was eventually yellow-carded for persistent infringing on 34 minutes and this time Gaughan"s penalty kick was successful. Two St. Mary"s backs made a hames of dealing with a punt ahead on 38 minutes and coughed up a penalty which Gaughan struck over to give Buccs a 6-3 lead which they held at the interval. It could have been more as Buccs came very close to getting through for a try just before the break, with Michael Diffley prominent as some good ground was made. On the resumption, the diagonal breeze now blew the rain straight down the pitch from the clubhouse end and St. Mary"s tacked on 13 points in 8 minutes to get a stranglehold on the outcome. Kolo Kiripati did well to stop Ronan Doherty near the right corner ,but the referee deemed Buccs to be offside and Lynn stroked over the penalty in the first minute of the second period. Worse was to follow on 47 minutes when a gap of Dead Sea proportions opened up in the home defence and Shaun McCarthy took full advantage of this gift horse to angle in for a try which Lynn converted. Within a minute, Sean Carey was late as Lynn cleared his lines and the home winger"s ill-timing was punished with a penalty from where the ball landed to St. Mary"s. Lynn dusted himself down to inflict further penance on both Carey and Buccs and, suddenly, St. Mary"s had a comfortable 16-6 cushion. Conor O"Loughlin replaced the injured Paul Harte at this stage with Bruce moving to the right wing and soon afterwards Clifford Richardson made a welcome return to action in place of Brendan McManus who incurred a nasty-looking cut. Buccaneers put some good interlinking play together in the lead up to a promising raid that brought Marcus Madden within sniffing distance of the visitors" line, where his progress was stopped by Richard Sweeney. Much to the chagrin of the home supporters, it was Madden who was penalised for not releasing the ball (which he appeared to have done) although his opposite number did not release the home hooker after tackling! With the weather worsening and the pitch now cutting up as this was the second game played on it on the day, chances were few and far between. But St. Mary"s counter-attacked to devastating effect when they turned over possession in a promising position in the visitors" 22 on 75 minutes and the ball was moved smartly down the left initially, before being switched diagonally across the paddock where Philip Brophy was on hand to finish off for a try on the right which Lynn could not convert. Nevertheless, this sealed an important and deserved win for St. Mary"s, albeit the margin slightly flattered them. They had a strong, well-organised pack well marshalled by Gareth Logan and Hugh Hogan that generally held the upper hand and they were able to slow the ball cutely when they sensed danger. Conor McInerney was the dominant line-out figure. For Buccs the tireless Madden was named "OYSTERhome Man of the Match" and Hanley also put in a huge effort for the midlanders as did Alex Hayman and Kieran O"Gorman. BUCCANEERS: J.O"Brien; P.Harte, A.Gaughan, A.Hayman, S.Carey; S.Rolleston, M.Bruce; M.Diffley, M.Madden, K.Moran; B.McManus, J.Tormey; K.Kiripati, K.O"Gorman and A.Hanley (captain). Replacements used: C.O"Loughlin (for Harte, inj. 48 mins); C.Richardson (for McManus, inj. 57). ST. MARY"S COLLEGE: B.Lynn; R.Doherty, P.Brophy (captain), M.Sexton, D.Fanning; S.McCarthy, C.McPhillips; R.Murphy, Richard Sweeney, Robert Sweeney; G.Logan, C.McInerney; P.Nash, H.Hogan and K.Sheehan. Replacements: C.Donohoe (for Doherty, 52 mins); C.Morrin (for Doherty, 70); L.Burke (for McInerney, 74); D.Kilbride (for Robert Sweeney, 77); M.Duggan (for Sexton, 77). REFEREE: Mark Hermin (Ulster).