The game of North v South was played out in front of a huge crowd in the basking sunshine at Deramore Park, with both sides looking to push into the play-off final next weekend. 

However, it was Blackrock who prevailed with a dominant first half performance playing with a strong wind. The first 20 minutes were fairly balanced, attacks for each side being thwarted by good defence and poor execution. 

Paul Kerr received a yellow card in the 20th minute which seemingly changed the dynamic of the Rock’ attack. Several missed tackles allowed Liam McMahon to score and conversion was well taken by Peter Quirke, giving the visitors a 7 point lead. In credit to Harlequins, their maul was a weapon which was well used and after several indiscretions from the Blackrock side, Quins seemingly looked to get a foot-hold in the game. 

However, this pressure was short lived, with Blackrock getting good traction in defence and winning turnovers through their flanker Colm Gallagher. Further scores came in the form of a missed touch finder from Quins, allowing Hugo Godson-Treacy to score from a great break and Peter Quirke nailed the conversion at the 30 minute mark. 

Blackrock were good for their lead through strong defence and punishing Quins errors. But, the Quins side looked to have a way back into the game after a silly Blackrock penalty at ruck time giving Paul Kerr an opportunity to kick to the corner. The maul got rolling and 3m from the line saw the maul pulled down illegally in the mind of the referee who awarded a penalty try and a yellow card for James Burke, with 5 minutes left on the clock. 

This wasn’t the end of the scoring, with poor Quins defence allowing a Blackrock break through then centres and simple hands in the corner gave Matthew Dwan a score to extend the lead - leading to 19-7 HT score. 

Blackrock started the 2nd half as they finished the first - attack after attack, punishing the Quins defence, allowing Peter Quirke to get through the middle and score in the corner, conversion not made at 60 minutes. A further score about the 70 minute mark by Brian Colclough put Blackrock even further ahead. 

With the game 29-7 in favour of Blackrock, many would have called it game over from there. 

However, like many games for the Belfast men, they would tear up the script and fight back to the end. 

Penalty kicked to the corner by Paul Kerr, and after several phases, Joel Dundas scored giving Quins a slender chance at a comeback. The conversion was quickly taken and missed. 

Off the kick-off, Quins attacked and a break by Josh Morton gave Mark Glover a 50m run in to score under the sticks, to narrow the gap to 12 with a few minutes to go. 

The game was all but done with a few minutes to go. Unfortunately, the end of the game will be marred with an injury to replacement lock Callum Power, who suffered a nasty leg injury requiring the game to be stopped for 20minutes and the players to move to another pitch.

In the remaining 5 minutes, it was a scrappy affairwith Rock’ kicking the ball into touch on the 50m line to take the W.