All-Ireland League Division One final/ Shannon 30 Clontarf 3: The golden rule when it comes to final day: never back against Shannon. In winning their eighth title overall, and fifth in the play-off decider at Lansdowne Road, the undisputed AIB All-Ireland League kingpins underlined that they don't really do defeats. Their record is quite phenomenal, and surely unequalled in the global game right now.
Their ever-diligent press officer, Andrew McNamara, plied the media with his customary barrage of helpful statistics - admittedly it must be a fairly enjoyable task, entailing merely a little updating each year - and may have been taking liberties by including an AIL sevens final in their unbroken sequence of conquests since 1989.
Even so, 27 wins from their 27 senior finals in all competitions since then is faintly ridiculous. What do they eat for breakfast?
"I've been pushing porridge all week," quipped captain Colm McMahon. In any event, come final days, they seem to grow a few inches taller.
Of course, it's mental as much as physical. Collectively, the starting XV went into this game with 55 AIL winners' medals to their names. Seeking their first title, Clontarf had the baggage of semi-final defeats away to Shannon and a losing final to Ballymena, and in a nervous, error-strewn performance, virtually everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Ever conscious of the need to honour Shannon's rich heritage, those such as Andrew Thompson (winning his eighth title) are as determined as those seeking their first, like the outstanding 20-year-old hooker Seán Cronin.
No better man than Mick Galwey to ensure the baton is carried. Geoff Moylan looked like a hard act to follow, but if Galwey's first triumph as coach last season could be deemed in any way the product of Moylan's work (an achievement in itself), this certainly wasn't. For Galwey has had to virtually rebuild the side.
An example was the loss of three hookers: Nigel Conroy to Rotherham, James Blaney to Terenure and Jerry Flannery to Munster and Ireland, prompting the promotion of young Cronin, the ex-St Munchin's player who has come through the club's underage ranks.
It was Cronin who initially slipped out of James Downey's tackle, made ground, floated a pass out to Brian Tuohy and was on hand to take Andrew Thompson's deftest of fingertip transfers back inside to race in for a stunning opening try.
It was also Cronin who hauled down the Clontarf winger Derek Keane at the start of the second half to prevent an intercept try. Galwey reckons the replacement hooker, TJ Hickey, is just as good.
Incredibly, Galwey still uses that 1989 Munster Senior Cup final defeat to Cork Con (when Shannon were going for a four-in-row) as a reference point and indeed did so in Saturday morning's team talk. Con have a lot to answer for.
"When we lost 12 players earlier in the season there was a lot of talk around town that we wouldn't compete," admitted McMahon. In truth, as Galwey also accepted, this wasn't a vintage Shannon campaign as they became the first team to win the play-offs from fourth.
Typically though, they saved their best until last.
"It helped that we went to Garryowen for the semi-finals, and that they had beaten us the last time we played them, and that Clontarf had beaten us well during the season," said Galwey.
For therein lies another golden rule, originated in Shannon and adopted by Munster. You never beat them twice.
Galwey had some sympathy for Clontarf, who had undergone major surgery themselves under Phil Werahiko this season, had been the division's leading try scorers and had been "fantastic" on the day they had procured a bonus point against Shannon by half-time. Chants of "easy" from their fans that day were stored away, but more pertinently lessons were absorbed by Shannon ahead of this final.
"We played very well and something we worked on was defence," said Galwey, who reckoned that was the key. Indeed, for 50 minutes or so Clontarf had more ball, more territory and more chances. For the most part, Shannon double tackled effectively to slow down Clontarf's ruck ball and when Clontarf did work Niall O'Brien into an opening he overlooked a likely try-scoring pass to Derek Keane.
For Shannon the polished Dave Delaney was virtually error free and landed two 45-metre penalties. Darragh O'Shea, meantime, landed one from three, missing his first from 40 metres and then, to groans from the disbelieving Clontarf contingent, from virtually in front of the posts with the game still alive at 13-3.
With Leinster not releasing Ben Gissing, Bernard Jackman and John Hepworth, it seemed cruel beyond words when O'Shea then knocked on a long Delaney restart and Shannon introduced Alan Quinlan and Stephen Keogh.
Those two got rumbling, and as Shannon upped the tempo, as sure as night follows day Eoin Cahill took a good line off Delaney's pass to crash over.
Late tries by Thompson and Dave O'Donovan rubber stamped the win, and recalling the most recent Munster-Leinster clash at the old ground, the sense of déjà vu even extended to an almost identical scoreline.
Werahiko spoke of the need to be patient and not force things against a good side like Shannon.
"We made more mistakes today than we probably made in half the season. They haven't been playing like that all year but today they delivered."
That's Shannon for you.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 10 mins: Cronin try, Delaney con 10-0; 16: O'Shea pen 7-3; 19: Delaney pen 10-3; 37: Delaney pen 13-3 (half-time 13-3); 57: Cahill try, Delaney con 20-3; 71: Thompson try 25-3; 83: O'Donovan try 30-3.
SHANNON: M Lawlor; P O'Connor, B Tuohy, E Cahill, A Thompson; D Delaney, F McNamara; L Hogan, S Cronin, G McNamara; T Hogan, P O'Brien; C McMahon (capt), J O'Connor, D Ryan. Replacements: A Quinlan for McMahon, S Keogh for O'Brien (both 54 mins), D O'Donovan for P O'Connor (74 mins), T Downes for Hogan, TJ Hickey for Cronin (both 80 mins), J Clogan for O'Connor, M Tuohy for Thompson (81 mins).
CLONTARF: D O'Shea; N O'Brien, M Hewitt, J Downey, D Keane; P O'Brien, F O'Loughlin; J Wickham (capt), N Carson, R Sweeney; A Trenier, A Wood; J Ellison, D O'Brien, P Purdue. Replacements: M Rantz-McDonald for Keane (47 mins), A O'Donnell for Wickham, K Dorian for Sweeney (both 58 mins), D Quinn for Purdue (74 mins), P Whately for Carson (78 mins), D Geraghty for O'Loughlin (80 mins).
Referee: Alain Rolland (IRFU).
