"We're still alive," was an opinion commonly ventured in a relieved Temple Hill clubhouse after Cork Constitution retained a tenuous grip on their AIB All-Ireland League crown by virtue of this convincing win.
They may only have a fingernail on the trophy but where there's life there's hope, and crucially the holders grabbed a bonus point with their fourth try in the third minute of injury time. Following results elsewhere, Con are no longer down amongst the dead men, and, while still in the bottom half, they've moved alongside the other faltering Munstermen, Shannon.
Five points adrift of the coveted fourth place, and with potentially 15 points to play for, Con aren't out of it yet, though they've still to travel to St Mary's and Shannon, and have only managed one bonus point on their travels so far.
"To have a glimmer of hope of the top four, which probably is impossible - we need to win and get a bonus point from each of our remaining games," admitted Con coach Michael Bradley.
"We put it up to the team to perform and they performed in a very business-like way. Our frontrow especially, and our front five, were phenomenal. We controlled the ball very well in the second half, putting together some good phases of play."
That Con comfortably preserved a 100 per cent home record was largely down to the platform laid by their frontrow and pack in general, at times scrummaging Terenure into the ground. Their ball retention grew stronger as the match wore on, the likes of Frankie Sheahan and Ultan O'Callaghan making the hard yards while Ronan O'Gara marshalled the show smoothly and kicked sumptuously.
In truth they were good from one to 15 where Brian Walsh - oozing class in everything he did - gave Con their sharpest cutting edge, nearly always beating the first-up tackle, while some of his offloads took out two men at a time.
"He's back to his form of last year," agreed the Con coach. "In the second half he made four big carries in a row and had it been American Football he'd have won the MVP award for yardage."
Terenure began well enough - their excellent lineout variations and chasing down of Richie Governey's restarts were a constant source of possession - before losing concentration and slipping away badly in the third quarter.
Given their form of late, and even allowing for the absence of Rory Sheriff (whose influence now looks even greater after this), there appeared almost a pragmatic acceptance of this defeat.
Despite conceding a softish blindside try to Jerry Murray, Terenure stayed well in touch until half-time; Derek Hegarty underlining a fine match with a superbly taken try when supporting Michael Smyth in the middle and scoring with a huge arcing run at pace.
Even in a division where most of the teams are much of a muchness, Terenure's defeat may more accurately put into perspective their top four credentials, for, aside from their organisation, sheer resilience had helped them eke out four narrow wins in their previous five matches.
After the break though they wilted, as Walsh blasted through the tackles of Hegarty, James Blaney and David Coleman to score from almost half-way, and thereafter the main question was whether Con would obtain their bonus point.
After John Kelly had augmented yet another of his highly effective outings on his return from injury by putting Tommy Kiernan over in the corner, Con appeared to have been denied their fifth point with a marginal foot-in-touch decision against Anthony Horgan, after being released by Walsh. Fittingly though, Horgan was put over again at the death by Walsh.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4 mins: Governey drop goal 0-3, 5 mins: Murray try, O'Gara con 7-3, 13 mins: O'Gara pen 10-3, 15 mins: Hegarty try, Lynagh con 10-10, 18 mins: O'Gara pen 13-10, 42 mins: Walsh try 18-10, 53 mins: O'Gara pen 21-10, 65 mins: Kiernan try, O'Gara con 28-10, 67 mins: O'Kelly try 28-15, 83 mins: Horgan try 33-15.
CORK CONSTITUTION: B Walsh; T Kiernan, J Kelly, Cian Mahony, A Horgan; R O'Gara, B O'Meara; I Murray, F Sheahan, J O'Driscoll, D Sheehan, K Murphy, J Fogarty, U O'Callaghan, J Murray (capt). Replacements: H Hegarty for Fogarty (20-23 mins) for Murphy (75 mins), D Dillon for Mahony (54 mins), F McCormack for Fogarty (82 mins).
TERENURE COLLEGE: G Dempsey; D Coleman, M O'Kelly, M Smyth, D Lynagh; R Governey, D hegarty; S Barretto, J Blaney (capt), J Campbell, D Quinn, P Holden, P O'Malley, E Miller, B Kavanagh. Replacements: M Whelan for Campbell (28-30 mins), S Cullen for Coleman (55 mins), C Potts for Holden (63 mins), J Jenkinson for O'Malley (65 mins).
Referee: A Watson (Ulster).
