Shannon edge their way to total domination

The Shannon conveyor belt may not be as celebrated as Blackrock's, it does not have the country's best schools' feeder system, but its under-age structure continues to trundle along nicely. No doubt there were some big names of the future in the side which ensured a mouthwatering under-20 decider in yesterday's second semi-final.

This though, was more of a curate's egg. On the one hand, Shannon started the way Blackrock finished off, with a breathtakingly pacey start which might have had them 30 points to the good instead of 14. Then, in classically minimalist Shannon mode, they took their foot off the pedal, allowed Instonians back into the game, pulled away again and then traded tries in the Kildare sunshine.

This was a more competitive and entertaining game than the other semi-final. Yet though they kept two or three of their bigger hitters in reserve, Shannon do not have Blackrock's apparent embarrassment of riches nor could they have afforded the luxury of resting the likes of Leo Cullen, Barry Gibney, Tom Keating and co.

Then again, this is Shannon we're talking about. They, assuredly, will not give anything easily to Blackrock. Aside from Marcus Horan, they have other Shannonesque big runners up front in Tony Flynn and the flankers Liam Fenton and Dave Quinlan, cousin of his namesake and opponent today, as well as the nimble-footed Hogan twins and the midfield pairing of Damien O'Connell and Eoin O'Gorman.

Shannon owned the ball and threatened to score at every opportunity during the totally one-sided early skirmishes.

After failing to put away one opportunity, O'Gorman made the inevitable breakthrough following Tom Cregan's half-break and pass; the out-half converting, but also missing three penalties from inside the 22 before adding the points to Fenton's well-taken try after good work by Flynn.

A reclaimed restart and a succession of penalties gave Instonians a foothold from which Kieran Holmes landed a drop goal. That gave them encouragement, and soon the pacey Ian McMullen was unleashed. They were fortified further by an Ian Knox blind-side try shortly after the resumption, but that proved to be Shannon's wake-up call.

A superb 40-metre break by the ever-threatening scrum-half Cormac O'Loughlin preceded a Cregan penalty and a good burst by tight-head Garry McNamara led to O'Connell's second try. The centre then augmented another Cregan penalty after a kindly bounce to his own chip ahead.

Instonians rallied once more, hooker Paul Shields figured prominently and the impressive Ian Rees switched productively to number eight - first putting John Reynolds over and then scoring himself in a trade-off for tries by Peter Hayes and Tom Finn. Like Blackrock before them, Shannon saved their best until last when Tristan Renihan's block down led to the centres moving the ball on and Brian Hogan working a reverse pass with Finn 30 metres out.

But better still could come today. It could be very interesting.