Relieved Flannery ‘taking nothing for granted’

MUNSTER and Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery played the first half of last night’s All-Ireland League game for Shannon against Garryowen at Thomond Park, without any recurrence of the back and calf injuries that have bedevilled his career over the past two seasons.

And he had double reason to be happy with his return as Shannon claimed the points in a hard fought local derby on a 16-9 scoreline.

“This was my first game of competitive rugby since injuring my calf in the Ireland-Barbarians game last June,” commented a very relieved Flannery.

“I’m taking nothing for granted because of all the setbacks I’ve had but I’ll be in recovery tomorrow, hopefully Munster will win in the evening and I’ll be back in training with the boys on Monday.

“Presumably, I’ll be available for next week’s game against Toulon but obviously it’s up to the management whether they decide to include me or not.”

Flannery, who was his usual industrious and courageous self, ruefully commented that “everything went fine except for my handling” and he did drop one pass in a scoring position just before half time.

But Shannon still took three points from the move as Garryowen flanker Paul Neville was yellow-carded in front of his own posts and Gareth Quinn-McDonogh tapped over the resultant penalty.

Shannon number eight David Quinlan had spent ten minutes in the sin bin earlier in the proceedings when Garryowen’s impressive scrum-half Conor Murray -ut over three fine penalties to put his side nine points in front. Quinn-McDonogh’s penalty narrowed the gap to six at the interval.

Shannon would have been more than satisfied with that situation given that they had played against an almost gale force wind in the first 40 minutes. They would have been even happier when another close range penalty by Quinn-McDonogh was followed by an equalising drop goal by the teenage out-half from a couple of metres inside his own half.

And the issue was sealed in Shannon’s favour when Quinn-McDonogh struck again, this time for a fine try at the posts which he converted himself. It certainly was an outstanding evening for Quinn-McDonogh and indeed for Shannon who used the elements cleverly in the second half and atoned for the previous week’s defeat by Dolphin in emphatic fashion.

Garryowen escaped with a bonus point when, for once, Quinn-McDonagh missed a penalty from a very favourable position with the last kick of the gtame.

SHANNON: M Lawler; L O’Dea, R Mullane, M Kinsella, S Kelly; G Quinn-McDonogh, P Rowley; K O’Neill, J Flannery, G McNamara, S Duggan, F Walsh capt, E McLoughlin, P Butler, D Quinlan.

Replacements: D Casey for Flannery half time; L Mullane for McLoughlin (51); J Cronin for O’Neill (76).

GARRYOWEN: L Bourke; I Hanley, C Hircock, K Hartigan, C O’Shea; C Doyle, C Murray; JP Cooney, R Meyer, D Lavery, F McKenna, A McCloskey, P Neville, C Hartigan, D Sherry.

Replacements: D Cusack for K Hartigan, J Harney for Cooney, (both h/t); M Melbourne for C Hartigan (50); J Rael for Lavery (73).

Referee: D Wilkinson (Ulster)