Belfast Harlequins - 43 UL Bohemians - 29No real surprise except, for how long UL Bohemians stayed with Belfast Harlequins. The Ulster side, who picked up a habit of putting 50 points on teams throughout the season, met perhaps their most fierce resistance since Trevor Brennan and his Barnhall colleagues tore into them in the league proper in their only defeat of the year.
Still, the Belfast side brought their total to 630 points in 17 matches and man-of-the-match Rhys Botha a round figure of an average of a try a game. Not bad statistics for the Division Two champions.
But Harlequins didn't have it all their own way, and nailed down the victory only in the final 15 minutes when a Niall Malone penalty put seven points between the sides with just 13 minutes remaining.
"That was only the 17th penalty we've kicked all season," said coach Andre Bester. "And I think it is only the second one we have kicked since the middle of December. I have told the players to run everything."
But in Bester's eyes, that Bohemians were in it for so long was also a function of an under-par performance from his side.
"Bohemians played better today than they did in the league," said the South African coach. "But in the last match, we had an edge. It was for promotion. Today we gave a lot of ball way. Our lineouts didn't function. We were a little bit lethargic. We didn't play well. In fact we played awful.
"But the match was a good advert for the game of rugby."
No disagreement there. With seven tries in the first half and three in the second, the match rippled up and down the Lansdowne pitch. Rhys Botha's touchdown for Harlequins on 50 minutes just edged out Martin McPhail's first-half try for Bohemians for the pick of the game.
The ball was fed left to right, and Botha took off, showing the acceleration that has earned him so many scores. On a long arcing run, he looped around the outside to out-pace the Bohemians defence, and a few shards of Limerick fingernail on his collar showed just how close he had skirted the closing cover.
McPhail demonstrated how balanced a runner he can be. Stepping off both sides into a wall of Belfast players, the outside centre simply jinked his way through for the fifth try of the game.
At that early stage the match was falling each way. Harlequins took the lead on five minutes, lost it on seven, then took it again on 10 when openside flanker Neil Best carried several Limerick defenders on his back for 12-7.
Former schools sprint champion Johnny Lowe then ran in the first of his two touchdowns, before McPhail replied; Lowe arrived again five minutes later for 26-14. Ian Costello brought Bohemians back to 26-21 with a penalty in injury time closing the first half.
Right wing Keith Matthews then took possession of a loose ball in his 22 and sprinted the length of the pitch for Bohemians to retake the lead. That score came in the midst of a Belfast storming of the Limerick try line.
While Matthews' heart-warming run was surely a sting, Harlequins immediately replied, with scrumhalf Sean Clancy skilfully keeping a touchline ball alive for Botha's thrilling run.
At 33-29, Malone booted the rare Harlequins penalty for 36-29 before replacement Andy Park kicked his heels up the right tram lines; courageous Bohemians were too stretched and too tired to bring his down.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: A Lowe try 5-0; 8: R Desmond try, I Costello con 5-7; 10: N Best try, N Malone con 12-7; 19: J Lowe try, Malone con 19-7; 23: M McPhail try, Costello con 19-14; 28: J Lowe try, Malone con 26-14; 38: I Costello try and con 26-21; 40: Costello pen 26-24. half-time. 43: K Matthews try 26-29; 50: R Botha try, Malone con 33-29; 67: Malone pen 36-29; 71: A Park try, Malone con 43-29.
BELFAST HARLEQUINS: N Malone; R Collins, A Lowe, R Botha, J Lowe; A Derwin, S Clancy; C Keown, R Weir, D Scott (capt), A Emerson, C Beukes, M Higginson, N Best, C McCarey. Replacements: R Collins for Malone (40 mins); M Finlay for Botha (52 mins); D Fitzpatrick for Keown, N Hanna for Weir (both 58 mins); A Dougan for Best (73 mins).
UL BOHEMIANS: R Desmond; K Matthews, M McPhail, C Finn, A Coetzee; I Costello, L O'Connell; M Harty, G Ryan, C Neilan, J O'Connell (capt), B Dineen, C Fitzgerald, A O'Gorman, A Hartigan. Replacements: G Flanagan for Ryan, G Danagher for Neilan (both 48 mins), M Roche for L O'Connell, S Browne for J O'Connell (both 70 mins).
Referee: D Courtney (Leinster)
