Vintage Shannon brush Old Belvedere aside

A PIVOTAL day in the destination of the league title? It sure felt that way and not just because of events at Lansdowne Road. Previously relying on decisive bursts of 10 minutes or so here and there, for the first time you sensed that Shannon had the bit between their teeth. This was vintage stuff.

Two-in-a-row had never been achieved before last season and revitalising the thirst for a three-in-a-row could prove even harder. Significantly though, the Shannon coach Niall O'Donovan sensed the resurfacing of the mood of two seasons ago and last season like never before.

"I thought we worked hard for the first time this season for close on 80 minutes; for 70 minutes anyway. Up to this, I thought it was 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off. We plugged at it all the way through."

As he spoke on the stand side of the Thomond Park pitch, his players were conducting their "warm-down" on the opposite side. Suddenly they cheered and jumped into the air like they were doing the haka. O'Donovan bellowed with laughter and cheers echoed around the ground where Shannon have been unbeatable for three years - it could only be the result from Lansdowne.

The players immediately adjourned to the dressing-room for a rendition of There Is An Isle. O'Donovan let it sink in. "It's a super-bonus. It reminds me of last year playing down in UCC (when news of Garryowen's defeat to Young Munster confirmed Shannon as champions). We still haven't won it, we have to win all our matches and go to Blackrock next week (the last team to beat them in their Thomond citadel) but we're now in the driving position. It's back in our own hands."

Had there been any waning of the old hunger, then they needed no more encouragement than the events of Saturday. Shannon will take some stopping now on this evidence. Their ball retention was back to its very best. One could not recall them committing one turnover in the match.

Their strength in depth was emphasised by Gavin Russell's couple of tries as deputy for Brian McGoey, and four from a pack shorn of Mick Galwey - likely to return next week. They pummelled Old Belvedere across the gain line, the driving play of their forwards forcing the visitors onto the back foot for much of the first-half.

Having done the damage around the fringes, a more fluid second-half display saw their brilliant, marauding back-row link repeatedly with the backs, popping up all over the line in typical style to plunder their tries.

The sun on their backs and a knowledgeable crowd in good fettle, it was almost exhibition rugby. Billy O'Shea treating them to a couple of Campo-like tricks; a return pass inside with a one-handed return pass behind his pack and dummy loop pass inside which fooled two opponents as he raced through a touchline gap of about two feet. It could actually have been more.

One would never presume that Shannon were so arrogant as to presume that this was a chance to boost their points scoring differential. But it sure looked that way. Three of their tries came from tap penalties inside the "22", the first when it was still 13-0 following a counter-attacking run from inside his own half by Andrew Thompson

Thompson's kicking is a supposed weak link but even that is coming good. Having set his radar when slipping in hitting the upright with his first place-kick, the subsequent unerring 21-point haul made him the division's leading scorer.

"There was a hunger there for points but it was for the two points to stay in touch with Lansdowne," said O'Donovan. "Definitely when we got ourselves into a good position, we had to go for points."

It was, in many respects, Shannon's most compellingly complete performance of the season. However, as O'Donovan also admitted, you had to ark what the holders were up against.

An Old Belvedere team without stars, Neil Francis apart, have come some way this season but came to Thomond Park on Saturday deprived of the London Irish-bound Kevin Spicer, the suspended Mick Carswell, the injured Hugh McDonnell and the flu-ridden David Shanley. And of all the places to go to without four first-team back-rowers, Thomond Park is unquestionably not the place.

Having been encouraged to take on Shannon wider out when the impressive Wille Norse breached the first line of defence when coming inside off his wing, for some inexplicable reason Old Belvedere repeatedly took on Shannon around the fringes.

Eddie Halvey, Alan Quinlan and Anthony Foley were queuing up for them. Fergal O'Beirne, a good player, was almost made to look a bad one. He and his colleagues were running into more than a proverbial brick wall, for walls don't drive you back yards and also rip the ball away from you.

Thus, a staple diet of their own line-but ball, procured through ex-Shannon hooker Paddy Kenny's Bristow-like throwing to Francis, counted for little. It could all leave a psychological mark and to compound their woes relegation rivals Old Wesley picked up two points at the expense of Cork Con, who will thus be more keyed up for their meeting with Belvo next week.

Sometimes, when the sun shines on Shannon, it never rains but it pours for the visitors.