AIL: Stylish Clontarf win against Dungannon

Dungannon 0 Clontarf 28

Clontarf needed just a bonus point to book their place in the semi-finals, but they did it in style with a 28 points winning margin at the home of the All-Ireland League champions.

Jimmy Dempsey set the scene with an early penalty, and apart from a handful of promising breaks, Dungannon looked like a side safe from relegation and with nothing to play for.

Winger Ollie Winchester grabbed the first try on 18 minutes, collecting on the left to skip past the despairing tackles of Bryn Cunningham and Mark Bradley to score at the posts, with Dempsey converting for a 10-0 interval lead.

And they wasted no time in stretching their advantage, Dempsey hitting another penalty early in the second half.

Now, with a last four place clearly in sight, they began to play with confidence and conviction, led by excellent number 8 Ben Gissing.

Gissing was in for what looked certain try, but Dave O'Brien's final pass was forward.

Clontarf did break the Dungannon line twice more, however.

With five minutes to play, Kevin Knowlan made the break for second row Andy Wood to dive over.

And in injury-time, replacement hooker Thierry Foucher scored a third, with O'Brien adding the conversion points.

Dungannon: M Bradley, J Cunningham, S Mallon, A Redpath, T Howe, B Cunningham, K Campbell, J Fitzpatrick, N Brady, R Mackey, K Walker, A Kearney, A Boyd, A Hughes, T Barker. Replacements: G Leslie for Mackey, R Mercer for Redpath, J Mitchell for Mallon.

Clontarf: D O'Brien, D Higgins, A Reddan, J Downey, O Winchester, J Dempsey, M Walls, W O'Kelly, M Kennedy, A Clarke, D Sheehan, A Wood, D Moore, D Quinn, B Gissing. Replacements: A Cullen for Moore, R O'Reilly for Walls, K Knowlan for Downey, T Foucher for Kennedy, T Kearns for O'Kelly, M Woods for Dempsey.

Referee: D Courtney (Leinster)