Belief the key as Clontarf keep up pressure on Shannon

HAPPY days in Castle Avenue. Shannon top the AIB All-Ireland league, but all the momentum seems to rest with second-placed Clontarf, who put Carlow to the sword on Saturday with an emphatic 44-10 victory.

That win earned the Dublin outfit their tenth bonus point of the season and helped them into second place, splitting perennial Limerick powerhouses Shannon and Garryowen - in the last month Clontarf have beaten both.

Coach Phil Werahiko agrees that beating the Munster sides was crucial to the Clontarf surge: “Certainly if you looked at our fixture list early in the season you’d have picked out the January games as ones we’d have struggled in, given the quality we were up against, but as it turned out we took 19 out of a possible 20 points in that period.