Amid Saturday's sun-kissed glut of 48 tries in seven games, nowhere was the end-of-season Super 12 spirit more in evidence than in Kilternan. DLSP, scrapping for their first division lives, threw the ball around thrillingly to outscore Clontarf by five tries to four. But ultimately it came to the last kick of the game by Damien McCabe. With that DLSP heaved a collective sigh of relief. Salvation may yet be at hand.
Minutes earlier McCabe had addressed an equalising conversion from no more than 15 metres to the right of the posts, only to hook it slightly wide to a mixture of gasps and groans.
Yet it may have been for the best from DLSP's viewpoint, for it obliged them to dig deep one more time and claw their way back up field. It also ensured Clontarf remained in defensive mode. Using the full width of the pitch and running it from everywhere, DLSP recycled the ball through three minutes of injury time, before finally Clontarf substitute Padraig Lynn went in the wrong side.
McCabe confirmed that this would be the last kick, from 15 metres to the other side of the posts, and painstakingly utilised an entire minute before gently and carefully stroking the ball between the posts.
The additional three points that came from winning the game (DLSP garnered five instead of the two which would have come their way in defeat) brings them to within a point of Belfast Harlequins and a game in hand on Tuesday night - albeit against Cork Constitution. Where there's life there's hope, and DLSP are certainly still ticking over.
They began this second of four do-or-die missions with an imposing barrage of driving mauls and a whirlwind of running rugby. The midfield trio of Simon Broughton, McCabe and the ever-dangerous Shane Stephens wove patterns and penetrated the Clontarf defence. Reduced to 14 men by the sinbinning of Rowan Frost, they responded with two tries in the next 10 minutes to lead 19-3. A rejuvenated Declan O'Brien led the way with a well-taken brace.
For Clontarf, this was an uncanny reversal of last week's 35-33 win over Cork Constitution, when they had started with an unanswered 17-point barrage of their own.
This time it was they who bossed the next hour, and their greater power up front and a litany of target rumblers allied to that unerringly accurate boot of Richie Murphy saw them score 24 points with reply. There were tries for Ben Gissing, Donal Sheehan and their highly promising full back Darragh O'Shea after a wellworked blind side scrum move to release Alan Reddan. Then Brian Hogan and, invariably, David Moore traded tries to leave DLSP 10 points adrift going into the last quarter.
Cue Phil Werahiko, who had supposedly retired these past two seasons until the previous Saturday, and the coach (who has played outhalf, flanker, prop and here again hooker, as well as his nominal number eight position in his revolutionary six years at the club) steadied the ship.
Even so, the sevens running skills of Simon Broughton were tailor made for the desperate final quarter catch-up. Apparent tries for the elusive Mihai Vioreanu and Stephens were ruled out by tight forward pass verdicts either side, and it seemed they would be cruelly denied before Vioreanu came from a clever, "blind" angle behind Stephens to weave inside and outside for a fine try as the prelude to McCabe's personal endgame.
Scoring sequence: 8 mins: O'Brien try, McCabe con 7-0; 11: Murphy pen 7-3; 15: O'Brien try, McCabe con 14-3; 18: Vioreanu try 19-3; 24: Gissing try, Murphy con 19-10; 31: O'Shea try, Murphy con 19-17; (half-time 19-17); 42: Sheehan try, Murphy con 19-24; 45: Murphy pen 19-27; 52: Hogan try 24-27; 57: Moore try, Murphy con 24-34; 74: McCabe pen 27-34; 77: Vioreanu try 32-34; 84: McCabe pen 35-34.
DLSP: E Devitt; B Hogan (capt), S Stephens, D McCabe, M Vioreanu; S Broughton, M Cross; C Condron, S Sarsfield, D Masters, R Frost, K Wheelock, D O'Brien, A Wood, S O'Donnell. Replacements: T Giles for Wood (23 mins), P Werahiko for Sarsfield, D Dobson for Condron (both 50 mins). Sinbinned: Frost (11-21 mins).
CLONTARF: D O'Shea; D Rossi, D O'Brien, J Downey, O Winchester; R Murphy, R O'Reilly; A Clarke, T Kearns, W O'Kelly, D Sheehan, B Gissing, S McEntee, D Moore, A Cullen. Replacements: T Foucher for O'Kelly (50 mins), P Lynn for McEntee (59 mins).
Referee: D Doyle (Ulster).
