Constitution dig deep to lift the crown

A Constitution man, in his guise as IRFU President, presented the AIB All-Ireland League trophy to another Constitution man, namely the winning captain, after which another Constitution man, as Irish manager, will help select the 28-man squad for Australia to be announced on Wednesday. Any one of the above would probably feel entitled to borrow a few words of Gerald Ford's and apply them in an altogether different context. "Our long national nightmare is over. Our constitution works."

Ultimately, they were the best team in the competition and few could quibble with that. This was their ninth league win in succession and, appropriately, they had seen off Shannon fair and square in the last round of regular matches before beating the two other sides on 16 points Buccaneers, and finally Garryowen, in the knock-out stages.

On the day, Con just about deserved to win, a point readily conceded by both the Garryowen coach, John Hall, and his captain Killian Keane afterwards with surprising candidness. Yet it could hardly have been closer.

Ronan O'Gara's decisive penalty came in injury time and with almost the last kick of the first period of extra time. Given the sole score into the wind had come from seemingly a different age, almost an hour beforehand, Con probably wouldn't have had another chance to win it. "That's how close Garryowen came to winning," admitted Bradley.

Had extra-time been scoreless then Garryowen would have been declared champions by virtue of their higher championship standing. That this was by a differential of just two points, in effect courtesy of Jim Galvin's injury time try in the last round, would have provided a terribly unsatisfactory outcome. "That's something we'll have to look at," agreed IRFU President Noel Murphy.

In any event, Con just about dug that bit deeper at the end, although equally crucial was the manner in which they started the contest. John Fogarty, a terrier in the tackle and on the deck, set up ruck ball from a line-out maul, and from Brian O'Meara's typically crisp service, Ronan O'Gara floated a lovely flat pass for Kelly to break Keane's tackle and offload for Conor Mahony to put Anthony Horgan over in the corner.

It was a trademark opening from Con, for they have been the most free scoring team wide out in the first division this season. O'Gara continued to take the ball flatter than his counterpart Jeremy Staunton, and the backs are all strong, straight runners with good hands.

A bit lost in Lansdowne Road's open environs, the game didn't quite scale the heights which that opening promised, but a fluctuating contest was never less than utterly compelling.

Tactically, Con were that little bit cuter. O'Gara ruthlessly pinpointed Jack Clarke with long searing kicks behind the veteran winger, sure of the ensuing yardage gain that would follow. Indeed, the superior Con counterattacking game, inspired by Brian Walsh, was a significant factor in their territorial supremacy.

They controlled the early lineouts, having seven of the first eight but Garryowen must be the most irritating side in the country to play against. The light blues just keep coming, like a dog with a bone. You can never put them away.

When the impressive, if patchy, David Wallace ripped the ball away from Corkery, it signalled a turning point as well as a turnover in the opening period. Gradually, they began tearing into the rucks, hitting them low, hard and in numbers, retaining the ball over a greater number of phases. Fogarty and Frankie Sheehan typified Con's defensive work ethic, for this was serious over-time.

It was unfortunate for Garryowen though that Staunton tore a thigh muscle in Friday's run-out. Treated early on, bandaged from half-time and hobbling afterwards, Staunton could only kick with his left foot and his running game was also curtailed. So they made do with Keane stepping in at out-half for the kicking game.

Alas, Keane himself is now due a sixth operation on his troublesome knee and hasn't been able to practice place-kicking for the last six weeks. Granted, as St Mary's will remember, it didn't bother him unduly in the semi-final but in the notoriously tricky windy conditions at Lansdowne Road, he could land only two from six.

O'Gara, meantime, landed three from five, and coupled with their greater threat out wide that gave them more of a cutting edge. Just as important though, was their forwards' tireless fringe tackling and their superbly organised back-line drift defence, which always seemed to give them the numbers and frequently forced Garryowen to play behind the gain line or kick the ball away.

Still, the Staunton threat, his gameness and his ability to keep the ball alive in the tackle, ultimately bore fruit when he made a move out of nothing in the 79th minute. Garryowen mauled better off their own line-out and contested better on the Sheehan throw, forcing Con to cough up six of their own throws. One of those saw David Peters deflect a front of the line ball down to Tom Tierney, standing in at hooker, and Wallace made a huge break. Loose ball briefly distracted Con, as it can do, and Staunton picked and linked with Rob Laffan for Wallace to give Clarke the tryscoring pass.

The odds seemed to favour Garryowen then as players began dropping like flies with cramp and other injuries. It was about who wanted it the most now and O'Gara's delicate chip and gather over the Garryowen backs led to his decisive penalty for offside from the recycle.

"I thought my leg was going to fall off," he revealed afterwards, though you'd hardly believe it. Ne'er a bother to him.

Scoring Sequence

3rd - Horgan try - 5-0 26th - Keane pen - 5-3 33rd - O'Gara pen - 8-3 36th - O'Gara pen - 11-3 Halftime - 11-3 54th - Keane pen - 11-6 79th - Clarke try - 11-11 Full-time - 11-11 90th - O'Gara pen - 14-11

Cork Constitution: B Walsh; A Horgan, J Kelly, Conor Mahony, D O'Brien; R O'Gara, B O'Meara; I Murray, F Sheehan, J O'Driscoll, K Murphy, D Sheehan, D Corkery, J Murray, J Fogarty. Replacements: D O'Callaghan for Murphy (69 mins), P Soden for O'Driscoll (72 mins), C Kehelly for Fogarty (85 mins), A Byrne for D Sheehan (99 mins), J Kiernan for Fogarty (104 mins).

Garryowen: D Crotty; J Clarke, K Hartigan, K Keane, K O'Riordan; J Staunton, T Tierney; N Hartigan, P Cunningham, R Laffan, S Leahy, D Peters, P Hogan, B Cronin, D Wallace. Replacements: P Humphreys for Cunningham (56 mins), R Leahy for Peters (85 mins), C Varley for Hogan (90 mins).

Referee: D McHugh (Munster).