St Mary's, Drogheda, had a comfortable junior cup section A opening round tie win against St Benildus at Green Road yesterday.

Tries by Colin Stafford and Andrew Hewitt started them off and at half-time they led by 43-0.

St Benildus, who didn't participate in the competition last year, battled bravely against the odds and were rewarded with a late try by Eoin Smith.

However, Drogheda were already thinking ahead to the next round at the end of a one-sided game.

Scorers: St Mary's Drogheda - C Stafford 4 tries, A Hewitt V O'Dowd two tries each, M O'Shea B Kelly try each, R Taaffe 6 cons; penalty try; St Benildus 5 - E Smith try.

St Mary's, Drogheda: S Carter; R Taffe, B Sullivan, B Kelly, M Stafford; A Hamilton, L Keegan; A Boylan, M Black, C Devereux, T Ruddy, R Ruddy, M O'Shea, V O'Dowd, K Fagan. Replacements: S Henry for Sullivan, P Rice for Taffe, D O'Dowd for Black, P Kelly for Boylan.

St Benildus: G Naughton; P Prenderville, P White, D Bruton, E Smith; J McDermott, D Byrne; C Gates, K O'Brien, K Meade, K Harding, R Blake, C Daly, E Maher, S Banville. Replacements: B Lynch for Bruton, S Lawless for Gates.

Referee: S Kennedy.