Rory shines asleaders Malone turn on the power

MALONE continue to hold a firm grip on their own destiny at the summit of 2A after their 54-22 try-fest over Blackrock College edged them further along the road towards automatic promotion.

In all, coach Paddy Armstrong’s squad crossed the Rock line eight times at Gibson Park with Andy Bryans grabbing himself a hat-trick of tries.

He was though, outscored by Rory Campbell, who grabbed one try but kicked seven conversions with Michael Cartmill, Peter Cooper and Josh Pentland all getting touchdowns.

Elsewhere, Armagh stayed in fifth after a 39-26 bonus point win at Nenagh, while Queen’s University lost again 32-28 but got two bonus points at home to Galwegians.

In 2B, there was no hiding place from bottom side City of Derry’s 104-0 obliteration at leaders Old Crescent with the North West club’s relegation now inevitable.

In second, Rainey Old Boys gathered up four points from their hard-fought 23-14 home win in their Ulster derby with Dungannon.

Tries from Tommy O’Hagan and John McCusker dug out the result along with two conversions and three penalties from Andy Magrath.

Ninth-placed Belfast Harlequins lost 51-34 at Barnhall and look set fair for the play-offs to stay up.

In 2C, Bangor gathered up four vital points from beating Malahide 18-16 at home.

A late Mark Widdowson penalty sealed it after earlier tries from Lewis Bret and Evan Willard McMillan to keep Bangor in fourth.

Right behind them are Omagh who won 18-11 at Tullamore after Luke Hanson, Stewart Allen and Mattie Eccles all scored.

Results: 2A: Malone 54 Rock 22, Nenagh 25 Armagh 39, QUB 28 Galwegians 32. 2B: Barnhall 51 Quins 34, Old Cres 104 Derry 0, Rainey 23 Gannon 14. 2C: Bangor 18 Malahide 16, Tullamore 11 Omagh 18 SCARLETS coach Wayne Pivac has slammed the decision by organisers of the Guinness PRO14 to fix both games between his champions and their Conference B rivals Leinster during the Six Nations window.

Both bulk suppliers to their respective national teams, who meet in Dublin next weekend, the Welsh region and Irish province were severely diminished at the RDS on Saturday, with 23 front-liners missing due to international involvement alone.

There is plenty of road to run between now and the end of the season, but these two teams — who met in last year’s semi-final — could face each other again in the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup and the PRO14 and, if they did, they would field very different teams.

And Pivac (right) believes that the scheduling of these two conference