CLONTARF - 6 SHANNON - 14: These are the kind of gritty, gutsy wins which make the journey home all the more enjoyable. They're also the sort of victories which get you into the business end of the season.
This defeat may ultimately show that Clontarf are a fraction off a top four side just yet, but they're enjoying their best season ever in the AIB League and they provide an acid test for any aspiring play-off club, especially at Castle Avenue.
Their progress this season reflects well on the influence of the less celebrated but more benign Kiwi Philip Werahiko, after a couple of years under the forward-orientated, more dictatorial presence of former All Black and Puma coach Alex Wyllie. The result from Athlone would suggest Werahiko is missed at DLSP too.
Clontarf have a much broader scope this season, scoring tries through a useful back division. There were snatches of this on Saturday when both wingers, Daire Higgins and Ollie Winchester beat their men on the outside early and late on, but for the most part they cut their cloth to suit the conditions.
Kicked-off to the backdrop of a rainbow, on an already sodden surface which was cut up further by heavy downpours amid some bursts of sun, this was trench warfare. Indeed long before the end, the pitch resembled one of those old black and white stills from World War I. The battle wasn't so much for hard yardage as hard "inchage".
Minimising the risk element, Clontarf rarely moved the ball two passes away from the breakdown, the talented Mike Walls probing and popping the ball to the big rumblers, while outhalf Jimmy Dempsey willingly took it up himself when those options were exhausted.
It's a measure of Clontarf's improvement that Dave Moore, a mainstay of the side in recent seasons, is latterly an impact sub and the likes of Ben Gissing, Donal Sheehan, Andy Wood and Warren O'Kelly pile up the yards. The Clontarf pack deserved to get something out of this game, for they also out-scrummed and out-mauled the Shannon eight.
However Shannon, who won the toss and elected to have an exact target to aim at with the strong diagonal wind in the second period, defended with discipline and kept Clontarf's chances to a minimum. Dempsey landed his two kickable penalties, scuffed a couple of drop goal attempts and missed one angled kick.
Clontarf did well into the wind, but Shannon's Tom Cregan landed two from two outside the 40 metre line, and unsurprisingly the game turned on one moment, when David O'Brien missed a penalty to touch as Dempsey received treatment.
Not even poacher extraordinaire John Lacey had a sniff of the line all day, but here he fielded the ball and utilised the wind with a towering diagonal kick. Higgins had the least enviable place in the ground as the ball eluded him from the sky, and it bounced kindly for Fiachra O'Loughlin to run it in from 30 metres.
Shannon finished much the stronger, Cregan copperfastening the win. They may be younger than the four-in-a-row mob but they've a sprinkling of leaders to go with their talent and, in time honoured fashion, they kept their heads.
No one turned the game around more than Marcus Horan, the gifted prop reminding us of his ability with a couple of big steals in Clontarf mauls and some astonishing bursts.
SCORING SEQUENCE - 20 mins: Dempsey pen 3-0; 24: Dempsey pen 6-0; 56: Cregan pen 6-3; 67: Cregan pen 6-6; 74: O'Loughlin try 6-11; 80: Cregan pen 6-14.
CLONTARF: D O'Brien; D Higgins, A Reddan, J Downey, O Winchester; J Dempsey, M Walls; W O'Kelly, M Kennedy, A Clarke, A Wood, D Sheehan, A Dignam, B Gissing, D Quinn. Replacements: D Moore for Dignam (57 mins), A Cullen for Quinn, T Foucher for Kennedy (both 68 ).
SHANNON: J Lacey; T Cregan, M Lawlor, A Thompson, F O'Loughlin; N McNamara, D hegarty; F Roche, J Blaney, M Horan, B Buckley, T Hayes, R Collins, D Quinlan (capt), C McMahon. Replacements: A Quinlan for Collins (53 ), G McNamara for Roche (60 ) .
Referee: S McDowell (Ulster).
