Shannon 44 Co Carlow 3:Co Carlow, who topped the table shortly before Christmas, now find themselves in the relegation zone. Shannon remain a force at Thomond Park and proved the point once again with a six-try performance that earned them a bonus point and moved them two clear at the top of the league.

Without their New Zealand captain, Andy Melville, Carlow seem to lose their way and so it was again on Saturday. Not even the inspiration of an early Billy Murphy penalty and the fact that they kept Shannon scoreless for more than 20 minutes could save them from conceding 40 points for the second successive visit to Limerick.

Tom Cregan landed an equalising penalty in the 20th minute and in quick succession followed tries by John Lacey, Colm McMahon, Garrett Noonan and Derek Hegarty, two of which Cregan converted to leave it 27-3 at half-time.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: W Murphy pen, 0-3; 20: T Cregan pen 3-3; 21: J Lacey try 8-3; 26: C McMahon try, Cregan con 15-3; 36: G Noonan try, Cregan con 22-3; 40: D Hegarty try 27-3. H-t. 47: Cregan pen 30-3; 54: Hegarty try, Cregan con 37-3: 58: M Horan try, Cregan con 44-3.

SHANNON: J Lacey; T Cregan, M Lawler, A Thompson, F O'Loughlin; N McNamara, D Hegarty; M Horan, M Hayes, G McNamara, B Buckley, T Hayes, G Noonan, C McMahon, D Quinlan. Replacements: F Roche for G McNamara (53 mins); P O'Brien for Noonan (61 mins); M McNamara for Lacey (65 mins); J Davis for Thompson (68 mins); N Burgess for T Hayes, T Buckley for Horan (both 70 mins).

CO CARLOW: W Murphy; M Buckley, M Spiller, R Armstrong, I Dwyer; P Jones, R Jones; P Brennan, A Gallivan, L Hannon, L Byrne, P Holden, W Whitten, D Cox, B Baggott. Replacements: L Peavoy for Spiller (46 mins); JJ Waddock for R Jones (49 mins); D Hyland for Byrne (61 mins); J Hannon for Gallivan (66 mins).

Referee: A Rolland (Leinster).