AIL Div One Final/Shannon 25 Belfast Harlequins 20: Somehow there's something right with the world come an end-of-season Saturday in Lansdowne Road and another hearty rendition of There Is An Isle. Gerry Thornley reports
Players and coaches come and go but Shannon remain the standard-bearers. As an achievement, this seventh AIB All-Ireland League crown in the last 11 years ranks right up there with any of their previous half dozen.
In Mick Galwey's first season as coach, incredibly Shannon showed nine changes from the side that beat Cork Constitution in the decider a year ago. Key players such as John Lacey, Andrew Thompson (winning a record seventh medal from the bench), David Quinlan, James Blaney, Frankie Roche, Trevor Hogan and Mossy Lawlor were either sidelined or on the bench, yet the conveyor belt keeps churning out good players and, it seems, natural-born winners.
Some of the old stalwarts were there to lead from the front, five-time winners Eddie Halvey (in his last game before retirement) and Colm McMahon augmenting big games with big plays; ditto Tom Hayes and Stephen Keogh, a chip off the Galwey block who is destined for bigger things.
Tony Buckley, dubbed the new John Hayes and so the great white hope of future Ireland front rows, has more pace than Hayes and is an even bigger, rawer talent, especially at scrum time.
Frankie McNamara, a late replacement for Fiach O'Loughlin, was a livewire at the base, showing quick hands and a sharp brain to maintain their quick-tempo, recycling game.
Dave Delaney more than justified Galwey's faith in him by varying his game nicely and landing four kicks out of five from various angles, and all across the threequarter line they worked their socks off. When you saw centre Eoin Cahill and winger Ian Dowling mucking in with their forwards in a pick-and-go sequence it was clear that cometh another final Shannon once again had the bit between their teeth.
Remarkably, this was Shannon's 25th senior final in a row since 1989 without losing, other recent trophies being the Limerick Charity Cup, the Munster Senior League for a fourth successive season and the Munster Senior Cup for a sixth successive year. As Galwey told them in the dressing-room before the game, "Shannon don't lose finals, boys."
And as he reflected later, "It's something they've been bred on and something I've been bred on. You just don't lose finals. I joined the club in 1985. I lost one final in 1989 and I thought the world had finished. I thought Shannon were invincible. It was a day I never wanted to see again and thankfully as a player I never did, or as a coach yet. I suppose a fear of losing can be a great drive."
Harlequins opted to play into the stiff breeze, reckoning it was a 20-point wind, and they were pretty much bang on.
Patiently, Shannon hammered away for 20 minutes before the impressive Brian Tuohy scored a well-taken try after it had taken five players to bring down the counterattacking Dowling.
McMahon pilfered an intercept try with a trademark turn of foot and step before Keogh and Halvey (with a magnificent offload) put Nigel Conroy over, Delaney's boot giving them a 25-0 half-time buffer.
No one better personifies what Shannon are about than the pacy McMahon, who has returned to the club game after his Munster years with the same enthusiasm and effect as before.
"Since I got involved in the club, it's just oozed commitment and passion, and it's carried on when we've lost players to Munster. The club is a credit to everyone involved because they keep churning out spirited players with the parish passion," he said.
"We've trained hard all year and we deserve this," he added. "There were Tuesday night training sessions in Coonagh, after Belfast Harlequins beat us in December, when we got a bit meaner with each other and put our bodies on the line. We've got our rewards now."
Harlequins at least redeemed their self-esteem, as Shannon's lineout buckled and, untypically, they failed to take chances. A rolling-maul try for Matt Mustchin, a typically opportunistic try by Ian Humphreys (a running outhalf who, like his brother, knows how to attack the blindside) and a late, close-range score by Greg Mitchel left them coming up just short, but in truth, on balance, it would have been a steal.
It was the Belfast club's season in microcosm. The departed Andre Bester was reputedly in attendance, but it's as well he didn't show up in the dressing-room afterwards, given centre Greg Mitchel had just announced he would be following WP Strauss, skipper Jarlath Carey, Neil Hanna, Louis Magowan and Michael Kirkwood to Rotherham.
With Humphreys heading to Leicester and Mustchin to Edinburgh, Andy Ward will inherit a shell of this season's talented young squad.
Having doubled their €7,500 prize share for topping the first division, which will probably have covered the cost of Saturday night's homecoming party, the Shannon squad attended the club's O2 Alan Oakley Family Day yesterday, a blitz for 400-500 youngsters in the club from under-seven to under-18. And so the conveyor belt rolls on.
SCORING SEQUENCE
5 mins: Delaney pen 3-0; 22: Tuohy try, Delaney con 10-0; 29: Delaney pen 13-0; 32: McMahon try 18-0; 38: Conroy try, Delaney con 25-0 (half-time 25-0); 42: Humphreys pen 25-3; 48: Mustchin try, Humphreys con 25-8; 73: Humphreys try 25-13; 80: Mitchell try, Humphreys con 25-20.
SHANNON: D O'Donovan; I Dowling, B Tuohy, E Cahill, F McLoughlin; D Delaney, F McNamara; L Hogan, N Conroy, T Buckley, E Halvey, T Hayes (capt), C McMahon, J O'Connor, S Keogh. Replacements: J Blaney for Conroy, F Roche for Hogan, T Cregan for O'Donovan (all 63 mins), D Quinlan for O'Connor, A Thompson for Delaney (both 79 mins). Sin-binned: Halvey (15-25 mins).
BELFAST HARLEQUINS: J Lowe; P McKenzie, G Mitchel, WP Strauss, S Wilson; I Humphreys, A Matchett; J Carey (capt), N Hanna, J Andress, M Mustchin, L Magowan, S Lamb, D Dougherty, C McCarey. Replacements: D Fitzpatrick for Lamb (15-25 mins) and for Andress (47 mins), R Best for Hanna (47 mins), D Barber for Lamb (64 mins), A Gillespie for Dougherty (76 mins), C Keown for Carey, G McLoughlin for Wilson (81 mins). Sin-binned: Andress (15-25 mins).
Referee: A Lewis (IRFU).
