Ballymena's late revival continues

All-Ireland League/Round-up: UCD and Ballymena are the only two sides realistically capable of stealing into the play-offs but the incumbent top four all edged clear over the weekend.

Three teams racked up 50-plus points, while at Lansdowne Road, Ballymena continued their late season revival under Steph Nel with a 45-5 defeat of the hosts.

Clontarf beat the students at Castle Avenue to all but guarantee a semi-final slot. They now have trips to Shannon and Belfast and a home tie against Lansdowne, with two from three wins enough to secure the vital home quarter-final.

The Dublin club are looking good but it's still hard to see past Shannon retaining their title after they obliterated Dungannon 52-8 in fortress Thomond.

Belfast Harlequins should be a club in turmoil. Instead, they are the most viable challengers to the top two. The loss of Andre Bester to Rotherham may have disrupted training but with Andy Ward winding down his playing career, they can expect his increased attention in the coming weeks. He could conceivably become the first incoming coach to lead a team to the All-Ireland league title.

A potential problem is they have seven players in the Irish under-21 squad, like top try scorer Andrew Trimble. Without the centre they still managed to cross for eight tries against Buccaneers at the Grafton Arena. Former Irish schools flanker Chris McCarey picked up a hat-trick of tries, while sevens international Ian Humphreys finished with 26-points, including two tries.

Garryowen were lucky to stay third as they only managed to post a brace of Gerry Hurley penalties at College Park. Trinity almost snatched victory but Simon Mitchell's conversion of captain Hugh Hogan's late try drifted wide.

A Connacht-influenced Galwegians steamrolled Carlow with Eric Elwood making what may be one of his final outings in the AIL to convert all seven tries in the 52-10 win.

Cork Constitution have a game in hand on the rest but drawing with Blackrock at Stradbrook may be the killer blow to their season.