Ahead by just 4 points with 10 minutes remaining and a man having just gone to the bin, Collidge U21B’s produced a superb defensive display against a good Lansdowne side and reclaimed the Purcell Cup previously won in 2006.

Scrum-half Gavin Heuston (who kicked suberbly throughout) opened the scoring from a penalty after 5 minutes (3-0) and despite Lansdowne’s dominance in the scrum Collidge went further ahead on 29 minutes when a centre Karl Devlin sprinted from just inside his own half to touch down in the right-hand corner at the Bective end. Gavin missed the difficult conversion. (8-0)

Lansdowne, continuously frustrated by the disruption caused by Cillian Duff, Johan van der Flier and the other twin-tower Hugo Mays, conceded another penalty in first-half injury time. With no time for a lineout Gavin Heuston’s attempt from 40 mtrs fell short but wasn’t kicked dead and in the ensuing frantic play Lansdowne drifted offside and Gavin Hueston landed a 20mtr penalty to leave the half-time score (11-0).

The expected Lansdowne second-half revival began immediately but again and again decisive defending from David Godfrey, Perer Tierney and inspirational Kerry captain John O’Donnell repelled the attacks until eventually a scrum buckled and the Lansdowne 10, Peter Osborne, struck the penalty (11-3). With legs becoming more tired on the almost all-sand pitch, Lansdowne, in the 15th minute, made their first line-break of the match and it brought a try for No 6 Jules Diallo. Osborne added the easy conversion (11-10).

Following another period of sustained, intense pressure from Lansdowne and decisive tackling from Chris Best, Brian Costigan and Andy Murphy, Cillian Duff broke away and made ground to inside the Lansdowne half .... a penalty was awarded for coming in at the side which Gavin slotted from a difficult angle (14-10).

During the final 10 minutes (which seemed to last a lot longer!) Lansdowne had two very kickable penalties missed and they also lost supremacy in the scrums, which became uncontested, as MJ was carded and John O’Donnell had retired injured. Final score: UCD 14 Lansdowne 10.

Congratulations to coaches Pete Callanan and Ross Martin, manager Pat Banahan, and to all the squad of players.

UCD 15 Conor Keogh; 14 Bill Connors; 13 Karl Devlin; 12 Chris Best; 11 Jack Gallagher; 10 David Godfrey; 9 Gavin Heuston; 1 Michael John Murphy; 2 Peter Tierney; 3 John O’Donnell CAPT; 4 Hugo Mays; 5 Johan van der Flier; 6 Cillian Duff; 7 Andrew Murphy; 8 Brian Costigan.

16 Ronan Freeney; 17 Eoin Cusack; 18 Devon Wright; 19 Liam Gaffney; 20 Shane Costigan; 21 Mark Durkan; 22 Peter Conlon.