It was Grosvenor who broke the deadlock early in the game when Timmy McMullan landed a monstrous penalty from just inches inside the QUB half. Poor discipline in the QUB defence presented him with another chance soon after from much closer range, but he pulled his effort wide of the posts.
Grosvenor continued to dominate territory and were rewarded with the opening try of the final midway through the first half. They quickly worked through the phases before firing it wide to fullback Jack Breen, who dived into the left corner to finish at full stretch.
Angus Christie slotted a penalty in reply as QUB got their first points on the board just before the half-hour mark, but they were soon down to 14 men as Ben Power was shown a yellow card after repeated infringements.
Another McMullan penalty extended the Grosvenor lead, before Queens immediately narrowed it just on the stroke of half-time.
The Grosvenor defence were caught out by the quick-thinking Angus Christie, with the Queens scrum half racing clear to score after a quick tap and go from a penalty on the 22. Christie converted his own score to make it 11-10 to Grosvenor at the break.
Early into the second half, the referee produced the yellow card twice in quick succession after phases in the Queens 22, first to Grosvenor loosehead James Bowman and then QUB number 8 Peter Heasley.
Grosvenor remained on the attack though, and inside centre Mitchell McComb powered over to score just to the right of the posts, setting up McMullan for the conversion which he knocked over to give them an 18-10 lead. However, McComb was then shown a yellow card, becoming the 4th player to be sent to the sin bin during the final.
It didn’t stop Grosvenor from keeping the scoreboard ticking over, as McMullan slotted another penalty after poor discipline at the breakdown by QUB.
With the clock ticking towards full time, QUB rallied and it was the returning number 8 Peter Heasley who showed good strength to power over in the corner to score. Christie was unable to convert from a tricky angle, meaning Grosvenor led 21-15 going into the final minutes.
QUB were unable to find a way through and Grosvenor held on to claim the win and secure the McCrea Cup.
### QUB 2nd XV
(15-9) Will Cusack, Simon McMaster, Ben Power, Jack Harte, PJ Tiernan, Harvey Patterson, Angus Christie
(1-8) Niall Carville, David Swann, Ben Quigg, Paddy Eames, Tony Drennan, Will Gilby (c), Harry McMeekin, Peter Heasley
Replacements: George Coen, Nicky Woods, Ciaran McCarthy, Cameron Gillanders, Jamie McNeight
### Grosvenor
(15-9) Jack Breen, Jordan Brown, Timmy McMullan, Mitchell McComb, Peter Davison, Timmy Emerson, Adam Skelton
(1-8) James Bowman, Stuart Smyth, James McMaster, Paddy Hamill, Craig Steele, Peter Dawson, Sam Purdon, Andrew Kelly (c)
Replacements: Micah Stevenson, Mark Cartmill, Taylor Pollock, Neil Adams, Jonny Farquhar