O’Boyle stars as Garryowen stop Shannon flow

GARRYOWEN winger Ciaran O’Boyle left his calling card with Shannon and a gentle reminder for Munster coach Declan Kidney with a three-try tour de force at Thomond Park on Saturday.

The Munster Development player played for the province in their pre-season game with Leicester, but is bidding to prove he’s worth another look.

In front of a crowd of 2,000 (a bumper gate in these difficult days for Irish clubs), Garryowen ended Shannon’s 14-match unbeaten home run in the AIB League, and while the win was based on opportunism rather than sheer force, they deserved to take the spoils.

Shannon gifted Garryowen most of their 19-point first half booty, and can have no complaints; they had opportunities to rescue the game, but were found wanting when it came to finishing off those chances.

Coach Mick Galwey was bitterly disappointed. “Full credit to Garryowen for taking the chances, but we actually gifted them those first-half scores. All the scores came from turnovers by us, and that was very disappointing because we pride ourselves in our ability to retain possession once we have won it.”

The other disappointment was that, with enough territorial gain, Shannon failed to take advantage.

“The upshot of it all is that we didn’t deserve to win because we didn’t play well enough,” said Galwey.

“I think this is a bit of a wake-up call for us now, because after winning our opening three games, we came up against a better quality of team.”

The mood in the Garryowen camp was more upbeat, with coach Paul Cunningham lauding O’Boyle and others who contributed to the three first-half tries.

“Ciaran finished off very well, but others made a contribution too; we have some good strike runners.”

That was certainly evident in the first half, which produced some sublime rugby and four excellent tries.

O’Boyle opened the scoring after just five minutes when he switched wings and tore in at the corner. He intercepted a pass from David Quinlan six minutes later and was fast enough to make it to the line to give Conor Kilroy the opportunity to add the conversion.

Andrew Thompson kicked a penalty for Shannon and the home side edged closer when the out half hacked on and followed up to grab the try.

But the Garryowen winger was in mean form, and everything went right for him again in the 35th minute. His centre colleague, Federico Quaglia, chipped through the Shannon defence and the ball bounced perfectly into the winger’s arms to give him his third try. Kilroy converted and Garryowen, at 19-8 to the good, were comfortable.

Shannon turned up the heat in the second half, but they had nobody like O’Boyle to finish off any of their promising moves. Mossy Lawler occasionally threatened and Stephen Kelly had one or two powerful runs. Overall, the Shannon backs didn’t have the blinding pace that set O’Boyle apart from the rest in what was a most enjoyable game, and a very good advertisement for the league.

Cunningham is clearly not keen to lose O’Boyle, but he is convinced that his time with Munster will come.

“It’s not my decision, but he is a top quality player, and he proved that against Shannon, who would be ranked as one of the best defensive sides in the country.”