A LATE try, due to weak defending, allowed St Mary's to snatch a share of the points in this AIL encounter at Stevenson Park.

It was a tough battle between two strong teams and this was borne out by the fact that a number of yellow cards were shown. At one stage. each team had only 13 players on the pitch.

The St Mary's player of the afternoon was out-half Jonathan Sexton, who contributed 10 of their points although the visitors did trail 7-3 at halftime.

Dungannon had slightly the better of the play in the first half and went in front with a penalty try converted by Richard McCarter before Sexton was on target with a penalty.

An interception by Dungannon winger Mark Scott resulted in a try to increase the lead but then Sexton showed his skills when he cut through the home defence to touch down under the posts and add the conversion, A drive from a line-out resulted in Stuart Lamb crossing for a try to put the Ulster team 17-10 in front.

But Dungannon's complacency and handling errors allowed the visitors to srike back. Scrum half Matt Darcy cut through for a try which Barry Lynn converted as Sexton had been yellowcarded.

DUNGANNON R McCarter; P Magee, N Patterson, A Allen, M Scott, A Larkin; J Bates, N Neilly; N Brady, D Fitzpatrick, N Magee, S McCarroll, A Hughes, O Hennessey, T Anderson Subs G Cinnamond for D Fitzpatrick, 55 mins; S Lamb for N Magee, 55 mins ST MARY'S S Grissing; J McWeeney, B Lynn, P Brophy, R Doherty; J Sexton, M D'Arcy; H Hogan, B Donoghue, W Duggan, S Bradshaw, O Keane, Rob Sweeney, Richard Sweeney, M Duggan Referee D Moloney