CLONTARF dominated the first half of yesterday's encounter against Blackrock and looked like running away with the game despite an individual try on the stroke of half time through Blackrock's speedy full back Fionn Carr.

The home side had taken a 19-nil lead up to this point but Carr again closed the gap immediately after half time with another try scored from within his own 22 metre line. The home side seemed to take a rest at this point but soon reasserted control in the pack and eventually came out as deserved winners.

Clontarf were camped in Blackrock's half for virtually the whole of the first 40 minutes with Niall McNamara controlling things from outhalf.

Clontarf used the rolling maul from lineouts to great effect in creating three tries.

The first of these came after nine minutes when winger Niall O'Brien took a swift pass from the back of the scrum to dive over in the corner. The second came seven minutes later when another lineout maul sucked in the opposition and quick passing by the half backs gave centre John Kennedy a simple chance to cross beside the posts.

The next contribution was a straight forward push over try, again created from a lineout and scored by Cian Healy. Centre Matt Noghery added two conversions.

Blackrock saw more of the ball in the second half and in fact took the lead after Michael Beirne broke through three tackles to score beside the posts. A conversion by Carr levelled matters and Carr then struck a penalty to give Blackrock a short lived lead of 22-19.

But Clontarf substitute winger John Wickham finally settled matters with a fine break to score unopposed and Nethery made the easy conversion to the relief of the home supporters.

CLONTARF D O'Shea P Howard P Nethery J Kennedy N O'Brien N McNamara F O'Loughlin (capt) K Dorian N Carson A O'Donnell A Trenier J Duffy S Crawford D Quinn M Garvey Subs C Hely for Quinn, 29 mins; D Geraghty for O'Loughin, 36 mins, J Wickham for Dorain, 50 mins; A Clarke for O'Donnell, 57 mins; C Keane for Howard BLACKROCK COLLEGE F Carr A O'Neill K Tonetti D Rowan E Farrell D Popplewell M Cuffe C Culleton K Moloney O Cullen (capt) A Byrnes R Woods D Laffan D. Dillon Subs S Byrne for M Cuffe (41 mins) J Mannion for Culleton (41 mins) P Graham for Woods (72 mins) Referee J Carville (Leinster Branch)