Tries: Penalty try, Shane Donovan 2; Cons: Mark O’Neill 2; Pens: Mark O’Neill 2
Tries: David Quinlan, Conor Glynn; Cons: Gearoid Lyons 2; Pen: Gearoid Lyons
James O’Donoghue; Conor Kelly, John Bollard, Graham Coffey, Shane Donovan; Mark O’Neill, Kevin O’Neill; Jonathan Barretto, Robbie Smyth, Keith Dooley, Fergal Walsh, Kevin O’Dwyer, Kyle McCoy, James O’Neill, Alex Dunlop.
Replacements used: Ryan Roopnarinesingh for Coffey (49 mins), Gary Hamilton for Barretto (57), John Dever for O’Dwyer (57), Richie Smith for Kelly (57), O’Dwyer for Dunlop (74).
David O’Donovan; Greg O’Shea, Tadhg Leader, Willie O’Connor, Richie Mullane; Gearoid Lyons, Robert Guerin; Aaron O’Brien, Duncan Casey, Gary McNamara, Ciaran Power, Patrick Kearns, Leonard Mullane, John Shine, David Quinlan.
Replacements used: Shaun Horgan for O’Connor (32 mins), Conor Glynn for McNamara (36), Lee Nicholas for Quinlan (53), Quinlan for Kearns (62).
Out-half Mark O’Neill made no mistake with his kick from a left hand angle, but Shannon came to life from the subsequent restart.
A massive drive from deep towards the Terenure line was finished off in devastating fashion by influential number 7 David Quinlan and with reliable out-half Gearoid Lyons adding the conversion, the Limerick men suddenly found themselves in the ascendancy.
Terenure quickly reduced the deficit to the bare minimum with a second successful place-kick from O’Neill towards the end of the first quarter. Shortly afterwatds, they profited from a strong push from their dynamic pack to register the opening try of the contest.
A penalty try was awarded by referee Stuart Douglas on this occasion, which presented O’Neill with a routine conversion as a result.
It gave Terenure a big jolt of confidence as did Shane Donovan’s first try of the afternoon which saw the winger dot down after 25 minutes via a neat lay-off by the ever-influential O’Neill.
‘Nure were starting to spread the play effectively across the Shannon defensive line, and a fine move just shy of the half hour mark paved the way for Donovan to score again on the left flank.
Right winger Conor Kelly did the spade work for this latest try and although O’Neill’s conversion attempt from the touchline came up short, Terenure took a 25-17 cushion into the second half.
This looked like being an insurmountable lead for the Division 1B leaders, but Shannon’s play was bright when the game got back underway.
They cut into the gap three minutes in with an expertly delivered penalty from Lyons. The visitors were hoping that this effort would help them to build some badly-needed momentum, and the speedy Richie Mullane was agonisingly close to reaching over in the right corner on 46 minutes.
He was forced into touch by the Terenure rearguard and despite their best endeavours, Shannon were being frustrated by strong defensive work from the Dubliners time and time again.
Nevertheless, Terenure were struggling to impose themselves in the Shannon half andIan Sherwin’s side eventually broke through for a second try 12 minutes from the end.
It was replacement prop Conor Glynn who finished off a fine move on the left hand side and thanks to another conversion by Lyons, there were now just eight points separating the teams.
With flanker and captain James O’Neill in the sin-bin during this juncture, there was every chance that Shannon could pull off a stunning comeback, but their only opportunities to add to their tally came from two late penalty attempts from Lyons.
Unfortunately, Lyons was wide of the mark with these kicks at goal as Shannon – despite a hugely committed 80-minute display – came up short, missing out on a losing bonus point to boot.
Referee: Stuart Douglas (IRFU)