Con take battle of the top two

Cork Con 30 Shannon 22

HT: Cork Con 11 Shannon 15

Two quick-fire tries minutes inside the opening eight minutes of the second half saw Cork Con emerge victorious from the battle of the top two at Temple Hill, winning out 30-22 over Munster rivals Shannon.

The win sees Con regain first place in Division One and guarantees a home semi-final draw, with their last fixture to come in three weeks' time away to Lansdowne.

Shannon, who are also semi-final bound in second place, welcomed back talented back row Colm McMahon from injury, and were afforded the chance to start provincial players Mossie Lawler on the left wing and Trevor Hogan in the second row.

Con centre Cian Mahony missed out through injury, and the home side also lost the services of full back Dave O’Brien through a family bereavement. But the whites began the better with a penalty after ninety seconds in front of the posts from scrum-half Pat McCarthy.

He repeated the trick on 6 minutes, centrally from halfway, before Tom Cregan, already with 173 points in the bag this season, clipped over from 24 metres three minutes later to reduce the arrears.

Shannon centre Brian Tuohy exposed the Con rearguard to ghost over from the Con 22 on 15 minutes, with the Cregan conversion going wide.

And although Ireland U21 Tomas O’Leary touched down for the home side from a McCarthy pass six minutes later, Shannon ended the half 15-11 in front thanks to a try from wing Lawler with twelve minutes remaining, off the back of a Tuohy break.

Crucially, Con hit back with tries from their two wingers after the restart. Right wing Cronan Healy timed his run to perfection to score on 43 minutes and five minutes later O’Leary got in for his second to put Con 25-15 in front.

The win was sealed when another of Con’s Ireland U21 contingent, flanker Brendan O’Connor, barged his way through on 70 minutes, and Lawler managed to get in for a consolation eight minutes later.

Scorers: Cork Con: Try: Tomas O’Leary; Pens: Pat McCarthy 2

Shannon: Tries: Brian Tuohy, Mossie Lawler; Con: Tom Cregan; Pen: Tom Cregan