Shannon call on their reservoir of proven talent

Watching Shannon is sometimes akin to watching the cat toy with its prey in the back garden. Deep down, you know it's an uneven contest and Shannon will eventually move in for the kill.

This is no disrespect to Constitution, who grew in confidence as a half-hearted Shannon failed to exert their customary pressure. Anthony Foley would stand off the scrums and make his charges, but, understandably, there wasn't the normal edge there. Almost sadistically, Shannon practically encouraged Constitution to take the initiative.

For the best part of an hour Constitution competed well, provided as good a set-piece platform and enjoyed a measure of control at half-back, where Ronan O'Gara often looked the classiest player on view. O'Gara steered them into a 9-3 lead with a flurry of scores either side of the break, and it could have been more.

His first of three accurate drop goals sailed between the posts after 21 minutes, but despite his and his team-mates protestations, referee Ger Bennett decreed otherwise in the low point of a very indifferent performance.

Constitution might well have had a penalty try after 24 minutes - the field position admittedly having originated from a blatant deliberate knock-on by a Constitution forward on half-way which Bennett also missed. The Shannon scrum disintegrated as Constitution pushed over the line, but Brian O'Meara was prevented from touching down by an indiscreet Shannon boot, whereupon Alan Quinlan dived on the ball. The referee gave Shannon a relieving penalty.

Thus, it might have been 10-3 to Constitution at the break, or even 16-3 soon after. But that presumes Shannon wouldn't have picked up the gauntlet sooner, or that they wouldn't have overturned the deficit anyway. For, both on the pitch and off it, they had plenty in reserve.

Extolling the virtues of Shannon's squad system yet again, director of rugby Niall O'Donovan later pointed out that "I looked at our bench and there were 23 All-Ireland medals and one European Cup medal."

Time to utilise them so, and time to get serious. On came Mick Galwey and Marcus Horan. Significantly, the first popped ball off a line-out was called on Galwey, whereupon Colm McMahon and Horan took it up the middle some more. Suddenly it was a different game.

"Things weren't going our way and some of the decisions were going against us," said O'Donovan. "The lads were only playing at three-quarter pace and they needed a spark. Gaillimh (Galwey) was that spark."

Shannon also have that unrivalled capacity to turn up the tempo seemingly like they would a tap. It's almost as if they need a challenge. "Sometimes I prefer to see them go a score down," admitted O'Donovan, "although not two scores."

Speaking to some of them afterwards, their self confidence bordered on arrogance. No, they were never seriously concerned. Pat Murray called Eddie Halvey over to the touchline and said: "Right, c'mon, pick it up." And invariably one or more of the big guns, if not all of them, does. Quinlan, who removed his headgear after 38 minutes to reveal his new blond look (even the roots had been touched up), was probably the pick of them, though McMahon, Foley, Halvey and Ellison all did their bit.

Another spark came soon after Galwey's introduction. Languidly, Halvey deftly dinked a 22-metre drop out to McMahon. John Lacey and Frank McNamara supported the unorthodox break-out for Quinlan to gather one-handed, and flirt outrageously with the touchline in breaking two tackles and chipping ahead to force a Shannon line-out deep in the Constitution 22.

Thompson landed a resulting penalty and then a superb tackle by Ellison on O'Gara, coupled with Quinlan snaffling up the loose pass, saw the ball recycled for Jim Galvin to orchestrate a double skip pass in midfield. Alan McGrath and Brian Roche moved the ball on for Thompson to chip over David O'Brien and win the touch down.

O'Gara sent his restart out on the full and so, despite some superb restart takes by the excellent Jim Canning thereafter, the force was now irretrievably with Shannon. Their rucking game now going at full tilt, Shannon stretched Constitution some more for Colm McMahon to take McNamara's popped pass at pace and burst through a single and flimsy white line 35 metres out.

Though O'Gara did brilliantly to make the ball available in the tackle for the deserving Jerry Murray to score, Shannon were merely stirred again rather than shaken. Halvey stole a Frank Sheahan throw, Quinlan took it on, and Noel Healy was helped over the line by Foley from McNamara's pass.

The try for one of the local cult heroes produced a typical reaction, though in truth the size of the crowd - 2,000 or so - reflected on a competition brought into disrepute by the Munster Branch's heavy-handed treatment of the holders Garryowen, and their constant, ill-publicised moving of fixtures; not to mention the choice of a third division referee for this semi-final.

They don't deserve the dream final pairing of Shannon and Young Munster, though the Limerick supporters and Munster Cup itself does.

As do Shannon. Their final, final challenge.