McMahon provides the spark that ignites late Shannon win

They cut it fine enough, don't they always, but Shannon got there again. It needed something special once more, and an inspired substitution helped the champions to pull the fat out of the fire with a veritable match-winner of a try in front of an absorbed 7,000 crowd at Dooradoyle yesterday.

Although they were playing with a very stiff wind behind them in the second-period, Shannon were trailing 14-10 against a predictably fired up Garryowen entering the last quarter. It was going to need something special and the introduction of speedy young flanker Colm McMahon almost ten minutes beforehand was the catalyst.

All day Shannon had been making the bigger inroads over the gain line, primarily through the deft handling and running of outhalf Jim Galvin or his first centre foil Rhys Ellison, who gave another of his muscular, leg-pumping all-purpose displays. But noone was getting on the Kiwi's shoulder to continue the move on or finish it off.

McMahon's introduction - "a combined decision" according to one half of the Shannon think tank, Niall O'Donovan - saw Eddie Halvey move to the secondrow, probably his ultimate destiny as a rugby player, and almost immediately McMahon popped up on Ellison's shoulder to support one of the Kiwi's half-breaks.

Cometh the hour, Mick Galwey called a line-out on himself and Galvin used Ellison as a decoy inside him before popping a short delayed pass to Anthony Foley, also through the inside channel. Foley burst through, arcing back outside to make big yardage. Offloading the ball in the tackle in turn, Foley, Alan Quinlan, Halvey and finally McMahon brilliantly kept the ball alive for the latter to score by the posts. A try from the top drawer.

Whether or not Shannon deserved the win is a moot point, it usually is, but the try alone deserved to win the game. It was probably beyond Garryowen's compass whose sole try was, tellingly, an intercept. Too often David Wallace, whose best position is probably number seven rather than number eight, and his Garryowen cohorts attempted to take on the Shannon back row close-in.

Granted, the Garryowen halves Stephen McIvor and Barry Everett used the wind to pin Shannon back for long stretches in the first period. After the break, Dominic Crotty and his wingers lapped up Galvin's overly conservative second-half kicking to run the ball back at Shannon with gusto and the pack were recycling the rucks.

They also engineered a few overlaps from deep, although unfortunately for them they went left to right for Jack Clarke, rather than left-winger Conor Kilroy, who made some good ground whenever he got the chance. But how Garryowen cried out for the departed Richard Wallace.

By comparison, Shannon's midfield defence - where Ellison put in his usual big hits - was far superior to a comparatively more porous Garryowen. When the big runners close-in (the magnificent Galwey and the back rowers) weren't picking up and going, then Galvin, Ellison and early on the restored Alan McGrath all punched holes wider out.

Indeed, Shannon's bright running start might have yielded more than one early try. Recycling Killian Keane's long kick-off on their 22, Shannon moved the ball for McGrath to burst through, and Billy O'Shea's pass to Halvey was adjudged marginally forward on half-way.

A fumble by Crotty soon gave Shannon an attacking line-out; Halvey taking it cleanly for Ellison to cut through off Galvin's pass. The supporting Foley was held up short, but the retreating Gavin Walsh tackled Mark McDermott from behind and Dave McHugh decreed that a probable try had been denied so he awarded a penalty try. A brave call, and probably a right one, which Andrew Thompson converted.

Killian Keane inched Garryowen closer with a couple of penalties, the second from halfway, before Galvin cut through delightfully again to set up a twoon-one with Ellison alongside him, only for Crotty to gamble on the pass and pull off a try-saving tackle.

Shannon, even from deep, were still the team making things happen, including as it turned out Garryowen's 29th minute try when Clarke also gambled on McGrath passing to Thompson with a two-to-one break-out beckoning.

Clarke's close-range intercept try gave Garryowen something to defend, Thompson and Keane then exchanging softly conceded penalties either side of the break after mistakes by Shane Leahy - whose loss through a suspected broken collarbone denied Garryowen of their main ball-winner for the second half - and Billy O'Shea in turn.

The game, and more pertinently Shannon, needed something special. Cue McMahon, and his superbly created try. Shannon, ever the minimalists, largely played out time away from Keane's range thereafter.

However, the champions were almost too cute for their own good when seeking to absorb time at successive put-ins inside half-way, McHugh penalising them the second time when the scrum pedalled backwards. But Keane saw the game's penultimate kick held up by the wind, an even louder roar greeting Foley's clearance to touch from the resulting mark.

Scoring Sequence: 5 mins penalty try, Thompson con 0-7; 9 mins Keane pen 3-7; 13 mins Keane pen 6-7; 29 mins Clarke try 11-6; 34 mins Thompson pen 11-10; 46 mins Keane pen 14-10; 61 mins McMahon try, Thompson con 1417.

Garryowen: D Crotty; J Clarke, K Keane (capt), J Brooks, C Kilroy; B Everett, S McIvor; G walsh, P Humphreys, P Spain, V Humphreys, S Leahy, P Hogan, D Wallace, A Bermingham. Replacements: C Varley for Leahy (42 mins), T Tierney for McIvor (70 mins), D O)'Sullivan for Bermingham (72 mins).

Shannon: B O'Shea; J Lacey, A McGrath, R Ellison, A Thompson; J Galvin, G Russell; M Horan, M McDermott, J Hayes, K Keane, M Galwey, A Quinlan, A Foley (capt), E Halvey. Replacement: C McMahon (52 mins).

Referee: D McHugh (Munster).