Garryowen snatch win

IT has now been confirmed that Lazarus was indeed a Limerickman. After witnessing Garryowen's dramatic victory over Ballymena there is also no doubt he hailed from the Dooradoyle district of the city.

At 13-0 with nine minutes remaining, it looked like Garryowen's Division One aspirations were buried in the Eaton Park mud.

Then came that remarkable recovery. As Ballymena turned off the boilers, Garryowen stepped on the gas and with three tries chalked up as memorable a victory as you could wish for, particularly as it spiralled them right to the top of Division One on points difference.

That didn't surprise coach John Hall. "We are now in pole position, particularly since we have a home game against Blackrock next. They will be difficult to beat, but they are not one of the more fancied sides.

"The big game for us is the derby against Young Munster. If we win those two games we could finds ourselves finishing on top."

After Ballymena's number eight, Tony McWhirter, had squirmed over for a converted try midway through the second half to push his side into what looked an unassailable 13-0 lead, the wheels fell off for the home side. In quick succession from good ruck ball, Garryowen struck decisively. First Kevin O'Riordan was given space to charge over in the left-hand corner for Killian Keane to drift a splendid conversion over with the breeze. Then Keane himself danced through the Ballymena defence to go under the posts four minutes later for the second. To put the icing on the cake, lively scrum-half Tom Tierney picked up from a scrum to waltz over in the right-hand corner. End of ball game.

Ballymena coach Andre Bester was left perplexed at the end, saying: "How did we manage to lose that. I still believe that some of the Ulster players are not yet fully focused. But, it's not all over yet."

SCORING SEQUENCE: 1 min: Mason penalty, 3-0; 5: Mason penalty, 6-0; 65: McWhirter try, Mason conversion, 13-0; 71: O'Riordan try, Keane conversion, 13-7; 76: Keane try and conversion, 13-14; 80: Tierney try, 13-19.

BALLYMENA: S Mason; S Stewart, S Coulter, J Wells, A Park; D McAleese, A Matchett; N McKernan, S Ritchie, R Irwin, M Blair, G Longwell, capt, A Graham, T McWhirter, D Topping. Replacements: J Gardner for McAleese (51); D Macartney for Park (68).

GARRYOWEN: D Crotty; C Kilroy, K Keane, K Hartigan, K O'Riordan; J Staunton, T Tierney; N Hartigan, P Cunningham, R Laffan, S Leahy, R Leahy, P Hogan, D Wallace, B Cronin. Replacements: D Peters for S Leahy (48), K Rowan for Laffan (56); P Humphreys for Cunningham (61), C Varley for Cronin (64).

Referee: G Black (Leinster).