Castle walls fall to raiders

Any thoughts of a Castle Avenue fortress were quickly dispelled on a breezy evening yesterday. With four home wins from their last five matches, Clontarf might have had, in the back of their minds, thoughts of a home run that could take them places in this league campaign.

Garryowen's recent bout of self-destruction (losing a 30point lead at Terenure) indicated an odd frailty in the Limerick camp. So much for psychology.

The contest see-sawed for the first three-quarters. Early on a Dave O'Brien try cancelled out one from Tom Tierney, who dived over for Garryowen following a skilful bout of handling up the left flank.

At that stage Richie Murphy and Jeremy Staunton had kicked two each, giving Garryowen a one-point advantage going into the second half.

Crucially, the stiff breeze had not helped the home side gain the cushion they sought, although, when Alan Reddan burst through on the right wing following some helpful assistance from O'Brien on 41 minutes, their tails were up.

But that was Clontarf's final flourish. A Staunton penalty took Garryowen to within one point at 15-14 before second row Eoin Kelly began the rout.

Staunton and MacKay, linking nicely in the right channel 10 metres out, managed to pull the Clontarf defence in field, and Kelly simply caught the pass and romped in tackle-free. Staunton added a penalty for 15-22 before a Tierney break, again in the right channel and 10 metres out, delivered hooker Pat Humphreys a gift ball in the right wing slot for 15-27.

When Keane dummied a pass from a ruck on the line and instead wriggled over for 15-34 the match was well out of range.

Scoring sequence: 2 mins: J Staunton pen 0-3; 8: R Murphy pen 3-3; 15: Staunton pen 3-6; 28: D O'Brien try, Murphy con 10-6; 39: T Tierney try 10-11. Half-time. 41: A Reddan try 15-11; 45: Staunton pen 15-14; 50: E Kelly try 15-19; 55: Staunton pen 15-22; 64: P Humphreys try 15-27; 77: K Keane try, Staunton con 15-34; 82: S MacKay try, Staunton con 15-41.

CLONTARF: D O'Shea; A Reddan, D O'Brien, J Downey, O Winchester; R Murphy, R O'Reilly; T Kearns, W O'Kelly, P McQuillan, D Sheehan, B Gissing, B Baggot (capt), A Cullen, A Dignam. Replacements: T Foucher for O'Kelly (45 mins); D Rossi for McQuillan (56 mins); A Clarke for Murphy (56 mins); K Nowlan for O'Shea (70 mins); D Moore for Dignam (70 mins).

GARRYOWEN: D Crotty; S McKay, J Staunton, C Foley, K Hartigan; K Keane, T Tierney (capt); N Hartigan, P Humphreys, R Laffan, E Kelly, R Leahy, P Neville, C Hartigan, J O'Sullivan. Replacements. J Giltenane for N Hartigan, C Varley for C Hartigan (both 45 mins); M Roberts for Crotty (73 mins); F Costello for Kelly (74 mins); S MacCarthy for Tierney (78 mins).

Referee: A Roland.