Queen's earn vital win over Blackrock to boost hopes of survival in AIL Division 1B

The students had lost 10 games in a row but have won their last two fixtures with a maximum 10 points and are nine points clear of basement side Buccaneers, while they have closed the gap on eighth-placed UCC to five points with three games remaining.

Coach Derek Suffern was delighted as his side played some sparkling rugby in the spring sunshine, scoring five tries.

“We have played pretty well in the last two games, it is good to get a bit of consistency around selection,” he said.

"It has been the first two weeks that we have been able to select the same 21 and we can just see combinations working there and getting a wee bit of consistency in training.

“The boys played very well against Blackrock. Early doors we had some very nice attacking shapes and put a few scores away.

"Defensively in the second half we showed a lot of character to keep a very strong Blackrock side out,” he added.

“It has been tough when you lose 10 in a row, but the boys have showed a lot of character. It has been very difficult for those young men under a lot of pressure and some of them don’t have much AIL experience, so I thought they were fantastic and hopefully they will take a lot of experience out of that.”

Suffern was pleased with his side’s composure after a number of opportunities went begging.

“We probably missed a couple of opportunities, there were a couple at the back end of the first half to get another try,” he said. “We showed good character to get that one early doors in the second half then we missed a few, but we didn’t panic and showed a lot of grit in defence and made Blackrock work hard and long for their scores, so we were very pleased with our performance.”

Suffern is now hopeful Queen’s have turned the corner.

He added: “We had a bit of a get-together before Buccs and wanted to get our own house in order and players taking individual responsibility for their performances.

“We are trying to stay on track and not look too far outside it and try and string some performances together and bring ourselves some wins.

"We have a fighting chance of finishing eighth or seventh and that is what we are going to try and do in the next few weeks.”

Queen’s scored three tries in the first 20 minutes.

The students were awarded a penalty try, flanker Josh Stevenson used his pace to soar through a gap in the Blackrock defence before James Wright went over. James Humphreys knocked over two conversions.

A converted Blackrock try reduced Queen’s interval lead to 21-7.

Prop Jack Boal got the bonus point try which Humphreys converted. Blackrock got another converted try.

Humphreys landed a drop goal before Ben McFarlane’s late try put the result beyond doubt.

In was a bad day for Ulster’s 1A clubs, Hinch lost 20-14 at Shannon, City of Armagh went down 31-26 at Trinity.

Malone are five points adrift a the bottom of 2A after a 36-22 home defeat by Barnhall.

Banbridge lost 19-15 to Navan while Ballymena beat Cashel 20-13.

Instonians’ 32-game winning streak in the AIL was ended by a 25-24 defeat in Silgo, Wanderers narrowed the gap with a 31-18 win at Dungannon, Rainey went down 25-21 against Malahide while Belfast Harlequins won 46-33 at Skerries.

In 2C Clogher Valley need three points from three games to gain promotion after a 29-15 win at Clonmel, while there were defeats for Omagh and Bangor.