Young Munster favourites come back to haunt them

EIGHT years ago, Aidan O'Halloran, Ger Earls and Niall McNamara played crucial roles when Young Munster captured the All-Ireland League for the only time, after a famous victory over St Mary’s College at Lansdowne Road.

On Saturday, however, the trio proved the chief architects for Thomond as they inflicted a fully deserved 23-15 defeat on their old comrades in front of the biggest AIB League crowd of the season in Limerick.

This may have been a second division match but it captured the imagination of the rugby public and more than 2, 000 turned up to watch an eagerly awaited derby.