After an optimistic start, CUS quickly faded and were well beaten by Cistercian College, Roscrea, at Athy yesterday.

John Donnelly converted a penalty for the opening score of the game, but soon after, Andrew Byrne got the first of his three tries for Roscrea. Roscrea's other winger, Howard Kenny, also crossed the line in either half.

Roscrea quickly established their superiority and by half-time, they led 28-8. They continued to turn the screw in the second half. Gavin Duffy and Andrew Byrne added a try each to Roscrea's growing tally.

Shane Garvey converted the latter score and missed very few of the place-kicking opportunities that came Roscrea's way.

Roscrea held an unanswerable 32point advantage by the time Mark Smith got the first score of the second half for CUS. But there was still enough time left for rampant Roscrea to add two more tries en route to a resounding win.

ROSCREA: S Byrne; J Phelan, B Hall, P McCarthy, A Spring; P Corcoran, B McCann; D O'Loughlin, G Ross, S Garvey, H Kenny, J O'Brien, G Duffy, A Byrne, E O'Malley. Replacements: B Spooner for McCann; E Carolan for O'Brien; D Cavanagh for Spring.

CUS: E Cahill; C Browne, C Lennon, G Flynn, J Donnelly; M Brogan, D Lambert; H Goddard, G Wogan, W Priestley , C Fitzpatrick, M Smith, D Brunton, D O'Keeffe, C Vavasseur. Replace- ments: D Casey for Fitzpatrick, P Maher for Wogan.

Referee: D Woods.