UL Bohemians 8 Shannon 16:Shannon have never been outside the top tier of the All-Ireland League and they launched their comeback in this season's campaign with a deserved win over UL-Bohemians at Thomond Park last night. They remain bottom of the table but this first win of the season will be a terrific boost for their remaining 10 games, seven of which will be in Limerick.

UL-Bohemians opened the scoring with a try from former Munster and Shannon player Mossie Lawler. He won the race for the touchdown following a grubber kick by outhalf JJ Hanrahan after 14 minutes.

Tadhg Bennett had Shannon’s first points with a penalty from 30 metres after 23 minutes and he had a second three minutes before the interval when referee Peter Fitzgibbon showed a yellow card to Ian Condell for persistent off-side.

Within a minute of the restart UL-Bohemians got back in front when Hanrahan landed a penalty. In the best move of the game Shannon opened up the defence and replacement John Sheerin rounded off a great movement for a try that Bennett converted.

Hanrahan missed a penalty chance for UL-Bohemian and late on Rob Guerin landed another Shannon penalty.

Shannon remain bottom of the table, four points behind last night’s losers.

UL-BOHEMIAN: B Martin; A Rossiter, M Lawler, N Kenneally, R Whyte; JJ Hanrahan, C Sheridan; T Burke, E Rossiter, G Walsh; E Kelly, D Frawley; C Kindrigen, I Condell, S Rennisson. Replacements: J Sutton, G Lenehan, J ODonoughue, B Walsh, D Fitzgerald.

SHANNON: J Loxton; M Darcy, E Moloney, R Mullane, D Donovan; T Bennett, R Guerin; J Cronin, D Casey, G McNamara; S McCarthy, M Culhane; E McLoughlin, J Murphy, M Essex. Replacements: M Corby, G Brithfield, J Shine, J Sheerin, W O’Connor. Referee: P Fitzgibbon (IRFU).