Shannon show no mercy to Mary's

St Mary's 13 Shannon 34

There seems to be no stopping second-placed Shannon and in particular Tom Cregan, as they comprehensively beat St Mary’s off the Templeville Road turf 34-13.

Left wing Cregan clocked up another impressive haul of 24 points.

Cregan is the league’s leading scorer on 148 points from nine games started, and got the visitors underway with a left-sided penalty in the 10th minute.

He nipped in for his first of two tries five minutes later, and his conversion of his and full back John Lacey’s effort in the 29th minute had Shannon dreaming of a bonus point, at 17-3 in front.

Mary’s out-half Barry Lynn had replied with a 25-metre penalty eight minutes earlier and he fired over his second of the game on 31 minutes before Jerry Flannery bustled over for Shannon’s third try, with Cregan missing the difficult conversion.

Mary’s, who remain third from the bottom following this loss, came back into the game with a try from Daragh Hughes, converted by Lynn, but Shannon went from strength to strength after the break.

They notched up another 12 points through tries from Cregan, his sixth of the season, and a second for Lacey, both converted, to secure their ninth win of the season, and first at the Dublin venue since 1992.