SHANNON MAKE HAY IN THE WET!
19/11/2007
Clontarf 16 Shannon 23


‘I Dont Want to talk about it………’


Written by Danny Whitten , ‘Crazy Horse’ 1971
Recorded by Rod Stewart ‘Atlantic Crossing’ 1975
Mangled by Robin Brophy ‘Live in Clontarf’ 2007


What to say..What to say….

The lights were on early for Shannon’s visit on Saturday on a day more suitable for trout fishing than rugby. Clontarf will look at this game as one that got away and will reflect on a few positives for the future. 

You have to hand it to Shannon though …. They arrived with the old Thomond book of wet weather tactics and played it to a tee, pinging the corners and applying a varied and skilled kicking game that is designed, as much as anything else, to make sure that when the Gods are handing out little pieces of game day luck the lions share inevitably fall to the Limerick men. 

The first came after 20 minutes with Clontarf pressing hard on the Shannon 22 (where have we heard this before). Shannon came up flat and invited a little dink over the advancing defensive line, unfortunately for the attackers Mossie Lawlor swooped on it like a sparrow hawk and two passes later Kelly was away. He timed his kick ahead beautifully to beat the cover and made it to the line for the score. In the second half Clontarf were pounding up the right hand side but turned over possession. Shannon out half Tadgh Bennett put up a perfect bomb that the ‘Tarf defence couldn’t deal with and hooker Cronin hacked on and just beat scrum half Paul O’Donohoe for the try. That was really the story of the game, Clontarf competed well but every time we looked like getting into it the Shannon defence would win a crucial ball and that would be that. There were many positives for the home side. The pack was superb and, a couple of turnovers apart, played really well particularly for the final try of the game where they went through about 13 phases of uninterrupted power play before Carson got in for the score. Keatley converted to add to his three penalties for a 100% kicking day and a bonus point was saved. The backline tried hard but came up empty handed on a murky day when the last team you need to be facing is Shannon, with the Thomond playbook, and cute heads like Quinlan , O’Loughlin , and Thompson singing from it.

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