Poor quality fare permeated by a nasty undercurrent was exacerbated by a frustratingly patchy performance from referee Sean Buggy at Templeville Road on Saturday. He failed to curb over-physical confrontations in the opening 10 minutes of this match with the requisite authority and this was taken by several individuals as a carte blanche to continue their machinations.
The result was frequent stoppages, countless injuries and perhaps most revealing in this context, an irate Lansdowne captain, Kurt McQuilkin, confronting St Mary's College flanker Trevor Brennan following a ruck. Three players received yellow cards, Victor Costello, Brennan and David O'Mahony - the centre, not his namesake the scrum-half - and there could have been more.
Buggy's decisions seemed to perplex both teams, his failure to pick-up the blatant, let alone less obvious transgressions, greeted with howls of disapproval.
Mary's coach Steve Hennessy pointed out that the Lansdowne centres were offside all afternoon, his Lansdowne counterpart, Mick Cosgrave, maintained that it was legitimate pressure. The truth was perhaps somewhere in between. It would be churlish though to ignore the excellence of Lansdowne's defence, inspired by the work-rate and tackling of Reggie Corrigan, Shane and Colin McEntee and the superb Liam Toland, whose industry and constant harassment of St Mary's young out-half Richard Ormond paid handsome dividends.
McQuilkin and Shane Horgan smothered St Mary's attempts at creativity, although, in mitigation, neither Ray McIlreavy nor McKenna gave their opposite numbers any scope in possession either. It meant that progress was made through the driving of the respective packs, St Mary's more adept in this respect.
Indeed the St Mary's eight would be justified in feeling slightly miffed. They dominated in the tight, shunting Lansdowne backwards in the scrum, but undid all their good work with handling errors or a lack of control at crucial times.
This was manifest on one occasion in the first half when having won a lineout and mauled the ball 25 metres, they were awarded a penalty and kicked to touch. Eight metres from the Lansdowne line, a try looked a certainty, but they failed to gather the throw-in.
Again with 12 minutes remaining, St Mary's scrummed down five metres from the Lansdowne line, drove their opponents backwards only for Costello and Conor McGuinness to let possession squirt away. The Irish scrum-half had an unhappy afternoon, sustaining a broken nose and producing a below-par performance. Lansdowne could claim that they too were profligate, spurning two gilt-edged chances when Shane McEntee and Gabriel Fulcher both pursued wrong options. And it was the visitors who started the brighter, producing a sparkling opening 10 minutes that yielded two penalties from Rory Kearns and a drop goal from McQuilkin.
Thereafter Lansdowne seemed to sit back and await a response from St Mary's.
Mark Reilly's departure through injury after 10 minutes meant a recall for Brennan, who is still not fully fit. St Mary's cranked up the tempo through the pack but could not breach the Lansdowne defence.
Costello was held up on the line after a well-worked lineout move while Ormond failed with two penalty chances. The out-half reduced the deficit with a penalty on 34 minutes, but four minutes into injury time, Kearns posted a similar strike.
The Lansdowne full back's fourth penalty on 63 minutes was the signal for a barnstorming finish from St Mary's - high on perspiration but low on inspiration.
The home crowd were initially left to rue what might have been on 80 minutes when Costello grabbed a try following a five-metre scrum, with Ormond kicking a fine conversion. But then St Mary's coughed up possession in their own 22 and Colin McEntee cantered over for an unconverted try.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Kearns penalty, 0-3; 6: Kearns penalty, 0-6; 7: McQuilkin drop goal, 0-9; 34: Ormond penalty, 3-9; 44: Kearns penalty, 3-12. 63: Kearns penalty, 3-15; 80: Costello try, Ormond conversion, 10-15; 83: C McEntee try, 10-20.
St Mary's College: K Nowlan; J McWeeney, P McKenna, R McIlreavy, K McNamee; R Ormond, C McGuinness (capt); J Maher, P Smyth, E Byrne; S Jameson, D Bourke; M Reilly, V Costello, M Cuddihy. Replacements: T Brennan for Reilly, 10 mins; P Coyle for Byrne, 47 mins. Yellow cards: V Costello, T Brennan.
Lansdowne: R Kearns; M Dillon, S Horgan, K McQuilkin (capt), N Gunne; B Glennon, D O'Mahony; R Corrigan, P Grimes, E Bohan; G Fulcher, S O'Connor; S McEntee, C McEntee, L Toland. Replacements: D O'Mahony for McQuilkin, 69 mins; C Egan for Grimes, 78 mins. Yellow cards: D O'Mahony (centre). Referee: S Buggy (Leinster).
Yellow cards: V Costello (St Mary's), T Brennan (St Mary's), D O'Mahony, the centre, (Lansdowne).
