Terenure are sent away with nothing

Despite some varied place-kicking from Garryowen (four from seven penalties), they came out of this one well on top, Terenure finishing at odds with their play, Munster's Killian Keane kicking into the darkening sky, his side comfortably two scores ahead.

The end was nothing like the beginning and when the Dublin visitors look at the video they'll see a match of disproportionate levels of rugby divided by the first two thirds and the final third of the contest.

Whatever caused the onset of fumbled passes, knock-ons and turn-overs in the tackle and a deterioration in concentration is a conundrum only Terenure can answer but the partial collapse was marked.

From the Limerick perspective, the team should be encouraged by the performance from Dominic Crotty, who came into the match at full back when French winger Cryil Tupinier hobbled from the pitch after 16 minutes. Crotty seems to have finally shaken off the hand injury which has had him sidelined for some weeks.

Killian Keane, apart from being given the yellow card, also showed a sharp vein of professionalism when he continually turned Terenure in the closing stages as they desperately chased the game.

Captain Colin Varley at blind side was also rarely out of the action, turning over ball on a number of occasions in the rucks and first up tackles.

That said, Terenure had ample possibilities in the first 40 minutes to put Garryowen under greater pressure, opportunities ultimately spurned as they went into the break only 8-6 ahead despite considerable territorial dominance.

Keane opened early with a Garryowen penalty for 3-0, but Terenure were at this stage moving towards an early match peak.

Even then, it took 25 minutes for hooker Cormac Egan to burrow his way over for their only try following a lineout drive in the right corner.

The missed conversion left the sides at 5-3 and, after Richie Governey and Keane exchanged penalties before the break, Terenure would have measured their return from that phase in very modest terms.

By the close of the first half, Garryowen were coming into offensive positions more strongly while Terenure's pressure slowly began to dissipate.

Keane's fourth penalty after a miss from Billy Treacy brought the sides to 9-8 before Governey again had Terenure ahead from the boot.

The match was still evenly balanced but the final 20-minute phase belonged to Garryowen. Treacy kicked the home side to 12-11 while Keane was in the sin bin before the centre returned to finally turn the screw.

A skilful cross-field break from left wing Kevin O'Riordan, showing considerable confidence with an outrageous one-handed dummy, set up Keane who burst through at an angle to the popped pass for an eye catching try in the right corner for 19-11.

With just give minutes remaining, Garryowen were out of sight.

A couple of silly knock-ons, demoralising kicking from Keane and you could almost see the energy physically sapping from the Dubliners' legs.

The win leaves Garryowen, who were pleased to point out that most of their players are home grown, unbeaten in the league with four wins and one draw.

Their high spirits were not, however, softened enough to miss out on an opportunity to attack the current club set-up in Ireland which was roundly criticised at the pre-match lunch.

One speaker also suggested that a player's strike might be the route to take to force the union to sit up and listen.

No doubt that rebellious view was hastily revised afterwards as the Limerick side now perch comfortably at the top of the AIL table.