THE turning on of the new floodlighting system at Thomond Park attracted a magnificent crowd of close to 4,000 people on a bitterly cold and foggy night to the Limerick Charity Cup final.
Shannon took a grip in the first half with penalties in the ninth and 20th minutes by Andrew Thompson, forcing Garryowen to infringe to keep out a series of powerful attacks.
Nine minutes after half time, Shannon appeared to clinch the issue when the outstanding Eddie Halvey won clean possession from a line out and they mauled the ball over the line where the touchdown was made by John Hayes.
Shannon missed a couple of penalty opportunities before the match swung into life in the 66th minute. A fine maul by Garryowen saw Colin Varley break off the fringe and dive over for a try. However, Conor Kilroy was unable to convert.
Shannon then took control and finished in style with a lovely try by out half Neil Whelan, which Thompson converted. Then Alan Quinlan wrapped it all up with a third Shannon try on the stroke of full time.
