All-Ireland League Round-up:In the 17 years of the AIB All-Ireland League, and the 10 years of the top-four format, there's surely never been a last day quite like it.
At Castle Avenue, Dooradoyle, Stradbrook and Coonagh a quartet of play-off contenders went through the gamut of emotions, culminating in one set of winners surprised to find themselves with a home quarter-final, another delighted to have earned an away semi-final, another having lost out by the width of an upright and the losers emerging mightily relieved to have squeezed into the last four, albeit having sacrificed a home semi-final.
Garryowen, having started the day in fifth place, were arguably the day's biggest winners, tries in injury time by the O'Boyle twins, Ciarán and Cillian, helping them inch their way into the top four on points difference (+122) ahead of UL Bohemians (+119) and Shannon (+117) courtesy of their 50-7 win over Galwegians at Dooradoyle while Shannon were beating Dolphin 22-19 and UL Bohs surprisingly emerged from Stradbrook with nothing after a 24-18 defeat.
Garryowen's points difference was 35 inferior to Shannon at the start of the day and the holders procured a bonus point late on at home to Dolphin. However, while keeping tabs on developments at Coonagh, Garryowen had built up a 31-0 lead at half-time and leading 38-7 entering the last 10 minutes, calculated they needed two more tries to have a chance of squeezing through.
Cillian O'Boyle, a high-impact replacement in the last quarter, duly sparked a pitch-length try entering injury time by his twin brother, and back Garryowen came though the phases close in before Eoghan Hickey, who had drop-kicked the previous conversion for a seven-from-eight haul of 15 points, chipped over Galwegians' rush defence for Ciarán O'Boyle to score.
"Never in doubt," quipped coach Paul Cunningham, who has presided over a seven-match winning run in the league and cup since mid-January. "We thought we would get through but mainly because I felt Dolphin would deny Shannon a bonus point with James Coughlan and Tomás O'Leary in their team. But we knew what we had to do because Shannon's game finished a couple of minutes before ours."
The surprise was UL Bohs dropped from second to fourth, and therefore Garryowen will play at Castle Avenue. Cork Constitution, the runaway pacesetters, will instead host UL Bohs.
Shannon were left to rue a penalty and two conversions by Andrew Thompson coming back off the upright, two of which would have propelled them into the last four, while UL Bohs were mightily relieved not to have blown their chances in replacing Shannon in the only change from last season's top four. Then Shannon had overcome Garryowen in the semi-finals with the last kick of the game, but there was no shame in again going so close after another summer turnover in personnel.
At the other end of the table, UCD eked out a 6-3 win over Belfast Harlequins to retain their Division One status and condemn their visitors to relegation thanks to Fergus McFadden's second penalty after 74 minutes.
John McLean afterwards paid tribute to the alumni and former players (among them Brian O'Driscoll) who had ensured Belfield's biggest crowd in their seven-year stint in the top flight: "We . . . kept our nerve against a very good defence in tense circumstances. There are a lot of young players here and they'll learn from the experience this season."
UCD deserved their win, as Harlequins' stand-in coach Alan Solomons conceded. Although prop John Andress and flanker Colin Atkinson are bound for Exeter, they are hopeful of retaining the bulk of their squad and bouncing back.
In the Division Two finals, Old Belvedere play Greystones, while Wanderers play Bruff in Division Three.
