AIL rugby round-up
Faced with the vista of a third successive defeat and missing leading men Ronan O'Gara and Ultan O'Callaghan, Cork Con looked into each other's eyes and rolled up their sleeves. Meantime, looking down on the rest of the country from atop the AIB League first division, Galwegians were struck by a dose of stagefright.
Glenina's biggest crowd in years for this AIB League Division One summit meeting were reduced to a stunned hush by an opening quarter which yielded three tries for the visitors; and a fourth with the last play of the match re-affirmed Con's superiority on the day in a 25-6 win which saw them return to the top of the table.
Rightly or wrongly, Galwegians' won the toss and elected to play into a very stiff breeze blowing in off Galway bay. That may not have been so bad in itself had the tactic been accompanied by their customary first-up tackle, but instead they were standoffish, allowing the Con ball-carriers to either break the tackle or offload in the tackle.
The trend was set within 90 seconds when the hard-working Frankie Sheahan and Jerry Murray took it up the middle. From the recycle the ball was moved blind where the hugely influential Brian Walsh made a half-break and put Aussie back-rower Craig Taylor over in the corner. Often used as outside attacker off recycled ball, this was Taylor's sixth try of the campaign.
On 15 minutes in the same blind side corner Jerry Murray sped onto Walsh's short pass to break one tackle and offload in another for Anthony Horgan to mark his return with a try. And just four minutes later Ronan O'Gara's classy understudy Conor Mahony brushed through four would-be tacklers on a weaving run off a line-out to score a superb solo try or a soft try, depending on your perspective.
That made it 17-0, and it could have been worse for 'Wegians given Brian O'Meara landed only one of the three conversions and was just off target with a 50 metre penalty.
The home side played the elements much better in the second quarter, their discipline and ball retention through countless phases close-in enabling them to score the only other points of the half through an Eric Elwood penalty.
However, it was also a template for how Con had to play it in the second-half and after despite the occasional sortie by Gavin Duffy when he wandered from his right-wing station, the game gradually slipped away from Galwegians.
Derek Dillon responded to two penalty misses by Elwood and at the death by scoring a deserving injury time try for Con off Mick O'Driscoll's skip pass. As statements of intents go, this one by the 1999 champions was quite impressive.
Elsewhere, as expected the champions St Mary's maintained their improved form with a third successive win when beating a depleted Shannon 21-12 at Templeville Road.
However, after tries by Denis Hickie, Dave Clare and Victor Costello in the opening 28 minutes were all converted by Mark McHugh for a 21-0 lead, the home side relaxed and were forced on the back foot by a gamey Shannon. Alas, their only reward was a quartet of penalties by Andrew Thompson and so they returned from Dublin empty-handed for the second time in four days after a third defeat in eight days.
Ballymena consolidated their third place when claiming maximum points in a 41-31 win at home to Clontarf. Tries by James Topping and Rhys Botha quickly put Ballymena into a 17-0 lead inside ten minutes but they were pegged back to 22-17 at the break after Clontarf effectively took Ballymena on up front to score tries by Dacve O'Brien and Ben Gissing.
Ballymena re-asserted their control with tries by Shane Stewart, Russell Nelson and, again, man-of-the-match Botha to move 41-17 ahead before letting in Clontarf for a couple of late tries which also earned the visitors a bonus point.
Young Munster moved into fourth place as they also claimed a bonus point at Kilternan in a 34-14 win due largely to a hat-trick of tries by their gifted second-rower Paul O'Connell. Further tries by winger Finbar Hogan and Mike Lynch, who also kicked three conversions and a penalty, sealed the win. DLSP crossed for tries by Declan O'Brien and Shane Stephens.
Meanwhile, Dungannon recorded their first AIL away win since December 1999 with a 26-18 success over Blackrock at Stradbrook, while Terenure also recorded their third win on the spin with a 34-20 victory at Belfast Harlequins.
In Division Two, UCD were hard-pressed to beat relegation threatened Greystones 17-9 at Belfield Bowl, though the win was enough to move them a point above Carlow and into the second promotion spot. To compound Gresytones' woe at just missing out on a bonus point, at the other end of the table second from bottom City of Derry moved to within eight points of them (and have three games in hand) with their second win of the season, beating UCC 27-15 at home. Midleton's 25-15 win over UL Bohs should make them safe.
In Division Three, third-placed Skerries suffered a surprise 28-23 defeat at Waterpark which leaves the top two, Thomond and Barnhall, now odds-on to be promoted. At the other end of the table, relegation threatened Ards and Corinthians both lost at home, 27-6 to Trinity and 8-0 to Instonians respectively, while Clonakilty took a huge step towards senior status with a 15-3 win over Connemara in Clifden in the opening games of the junior round robin qualifying series.
