THIS encounter brought the defending champions and league leaders Shannon, into opposition against Instonians, the bottom placed club in the Insurance Corporation League Division One at Shane Park last Saturday. And the result, a 35-3 win for Shannon and the manner of its attainment, was a telling illustration of the vast gulf between the two sides.
The match completed Shannon's programme in the league and they now stand two points clear of their Limerick rivals Garryowen, who have two matches to play. With St. Mary's College having failed to win last Saturday the title lies between the two Limerick clubs. As Shannon's coach Niall O'Donovan put it after his side had done a thorough demolition job on Instonians, "all we can do now is sit, wait and hope that Garryowen drop two points." The target mark has been set by Shannon: Garryowen must get three points from their remaining matches to win the title.
Shannon went to Shane Park with a dual mission - to win and to improve their points difference advantage over Garryowen. The winning margin means they now enjoy a 49 points advantage in points difference. "We had to win to keep our hopes alive and we wanted to do so by as wide a margin as possible," said O'Donovan. "I must say I am very pleased with the response of the players. We played extremely well. our pack was completely on top and we took our scores very well. Andrew Thompson's place kicking was another important factor. We never thought this was going to be an easy match, but we won it as comprehensively as the scoreline suggests. Our problem was losing two matches in the first half of the league. There is nothing we can about that now we must just wait and see."
O'Donovan had every reason to be pleased with the response he got from his players. After the opening few minutes of indecision - Instonians might have scored in the first minute -Shannon took over and after Thompson, who scored 20 points kicked a penalty after 11 minutes, it was the start of a five minutes spell during which Shannon scored 15 points. The first try came in the 14th minute when outside half Jim Galvin threw out a long pass across his three quarter line. It was gathered by Thompson, who turned and passed to right wing Billy O'Shea. O'Shea, who came in off the blind side wing, made a determined 25 yards run to beat the defence and score in the left corner.
Two minutes later Shannon struck again. Gavin hoisted a high ball and after Instonians full back Stuart Laing got possession, he was hit by a tremendous tackle from Anthony Foley, who got the man and the ball and sent centre Alan McGrath on a dash down the touchline which enabled him to score in the left corner. Thompson kicked a great conversion and Shannon stood 15 points clear.
Such was the superiority of their pack that Shannon dominated territorially. Mick Galwey had a tremendous match and once again, it left one wondering why it was that the best use the Ireland selectors had for this man was a place on the A team bench for two matches. Galwey and Brian Rigney won some excellent line out possession
Instonians had to do some stern tackling to keep out the forward surges with Foley often in the van and subsequently, penalty concessions came. Thompson kicked two and Shannon led 21-0 at the interval. Their superiority was as pronounced as that.
Instonians had the wind in the second half and cut the deficit when Laing kicked a penalty after three minutes. However, Instonians could not make any impression on the Shannon pack and when in the 48th minute centre Conor McDermott scored Shannon's third try - after Foley had fed him from a scrum - and Thompson kicked the conversion to stretch the lead to 28-3 the best Instonians could hope for was to keep the score down. When they did get into the Shannon '25' the tenure was of short duration. The Shannon defence was solid, both when Instonians tried to break it down off the fringes of the forward exchanges or on the rare occasions when they tried to spin it wide.
Then with four minutes remaining, Shannon crowned a very comprehensive victory when Colm McMahon, a 64th minute replacement for Foley, made a great run down the left flank, passed to McDermott and when the tackle came in, McDermott had Thompson in support and he scored Shannon's fourth try.
