Shannon tide rising

The easy bit is now over for Shannon. On Saturday at Thomond Park they hammered relegation doomed Galwegians; but if they are to keep alive their hopes of a five in a row, then they must account for high-flying Buccaneers and Cork Constitution in their remaining two matches - and even that might not be sufficient to get them into the knockout stages.

They certainly won't have things as easy again. Galwegians obviously have a little more cohesion and organisation about them since the belated arrival as coach of George Hook but they never had the strength to cope with the Shannon outfit that is edging ever closer to achieving its full potential.

Bang in form Eddie Halvey and Jason Hayes scored a couple of tries in the opening 25 minutes, one was converted by Andrew Thompson and with that platform, Shannon were never going to be caught.

Although Eric Elwood gave Galwegians some hope with the penalty just before half time, the second period was all Shannon and they had tries at regular intervals from substitute Billy O'Shea, Marcus Horan and Anthony Foley. Thompson landed two conversions to complete the rout.

Scoring sequence: 6 mins: Halvey try, Thompson con, 7-0; 23: Jason Hayes try, 12-0; 38: Elwood pen, 12-3; 55: O'Shea try, 17-3; 65: Horan try, Thompson con, 24-3; 73: Foley try, Thompson con, 31-3.

SHANNON: Jason Hayes; B Roche, C McMahon, A McGrath, A Thompson; J Galvin, S Johnson; M Horan, M McDermott, N Healy, M Galwey, John Hayes, E Halvey, A Quinlan, A Foley. Replacements: W O'Shea for Roche, D Quinlan for A Quinlan, D Kirby for Healy.

GALWEGIANS: W Ruane; P Duignan, M Murphy, A Reddan, H O'Toole; E Elwood, D Reddan; P Kay, D Lee, D Dobson, G Heaslip, J Duffy, G Dineen, J Charlie, J Casserley. Replacements: P Leahy for Kay, B Gavin for Charlie; R Tierney for Lee, M Finlay for Dobson.

Referee: R McDowell (Munster).