So much for the big re-match. In the end, this was something of a bloodless affair, although it scarcely required even a cursory glance at the team-sheets, and Garryowen's especially, to see that it was probably going to pan out that way.

On top of being without Killian Keane, Garryowen took the field without three more of their key players - David Wallace (ankle injury), Jeremy Staunton (thigh strain) and Connie Botha (hairline fracture to a bone in his arm). Wallace and Staunton were victims of a Munster training session on December 23rd.

In the ensuing reshuffle, Dominic Crotty was switched to an unfamiliar out-half role, with Mark Connolly making his full AIB League debut at full-back and Robert Powell doing likewise in the back row. However, it was the absence of Wallace as well as Wood which left Garryowen shorn of any gain-line breakers and rarely allowed the hardworking Tom Tierney and Crotty much ball on the front foot.

Granted, Constitution were also shorn a few men, Brian Walsh and Conor Mahony joining long-term absentee David Corkery on the sidelines while first-half injuries to John Kelly and Jerry Murray caused further reshuffles to their back five in the pack and their three-quarter line.

Even so, they were comparatively less disrupted and it showed. Likewise, it's a truism of the AIL that a team on the rebound from a defeat is always liable to be hungrier than a team fresh from a win.

As the clearest manifestation of this, Constitution were 16 points to the good after 16 minutes, and the game was as good as decided. After that, it was merely a case of how much the margin would be, though despite three further changes to their pack, Garryowen showed enough of their trademark spirit to do more than just prevent a rout from 26-8 down with half an hour to go.

That provided a modicum of comfort for John Hall. "To come down here and win we would probably have needed all our big guns. I'm a little bit disappointed with the amount of errors but this was understandable given all the disruptions caused by losing four players in the last four days."

His counterpart, Michael Bradley, was grateful that Constitution had merely opened their winning account, while acknowledging that both sides, and the game, were deprived of their customary rhythm. "It was very important for us to win and that showed in the end. Overall it was a gutsy performance."

Much quicker into their stride, Constitution immediately put Garryowen on the back foot through their pack's quick recycling and the assured kicking game of their halves Brian O'Meara and Ronan O'Gara, whose unbroken partnership is now in its third season.

O'Gara was a class apart here, varying his kicking and passing game astutely in Constitution's controlled first quarter and gradually branching out with some nifty breaks to give the somewhat subdued festive crowd reasons to warm their hands.

One of the benefits of Constitution's reshuffle was the brief return to Kelly's more effective and potent role of centre. He had already threatened to outmanoeuvre the fast-up Garryowen defence when, from the sixth minute recycle, quick hands from the halves and Kelly took out Garryowen's four-up defence. Flanker John Fogarty, who had a fine game, switched the point of attack inside to the excellent Anthony Horgan, and he made good yards before off-loading to the supporting Derek Dillon for a fine try.

O'Gara's conversion enabled him to become the first player to score 400 points in the AIL. Constitution continued to play simple, effective and largely one-ruck rugby, the hard yardage midfield man Cian Mahony taking scrum ball up the blind side to give O'Gara time and room for a drop goal off the recycle.

An unforced turnover and another needless penalty for not releasing off a botched counterattack enabled O'Gara to tag on two more penalties for that early 16-point lead. Garryowen were what they looked, a disjointed, patched up team.

Nevertheless, nice hands by Dave Peters nearly put Connolly over in the corner, the full back then missing a kickable penalty before a good angled grubber by Pat Humphreys provided the attacking lineout from which Tierney, Crotty and Melvin McNamara probed the blind side for the winger to crash over.

O'Gara and Connolly exchanged penalties either side of the interval as the force remained with Constitution and the tempo increased after the half-time pep talks, before the issue was firmly put beyond doubt on 50 minutes with a softish try.

O'Meara's actually missed O'Gara and forced Mahony to check, and from a position where he was probably only trying to straighten the line and set up another recycle, the centre had suddenly weaved his way through a numerous but porous defence to score under the posts, Hall's mood probably not being helped by the sight of a prostrate Crotty and Shane Leahy pointing to the main culprits.

Constitution might have made more of some elusive running by O'Gara and Horgan especially in the final quarter to threaten a bonus point, but Garryowen had the consolation of the final say when Colin Varley looped around Kevin Hartigan to straighten the line and provide the space for Connolly to run diagonally into the corner.

Garryowen had their bouts of pressure as well, but amid the changes their line-out all but capitulated, conceding half a dozen turnovers. Three of them came on the Constitution line, and one followed plaintive but unheard pleas from Hall to "take the three". Which rather summed up their day.

Scoring sequence: 6 mins: Dillon try, O'Gara con, 7-0; 9 mins: O'Gara drop goal, 100; 11 mins: O'Gara pen, 13-0; 16 mins: O'Gara pen, 16-0; 28 mins: McNamara try, 16-5; 33 mins: O'Gara pen, 19-5; 45 mins: Connolly pen, 19-8; 50 mins: Mahony try, O'Gara con, 26-8; 68 mins: Connolly try, 26-13.

Cork Constitution: D Dillon; D Moran, J Kelly, Cian Mahony, A Horgan; R O'Gara, B O'Meara; I Murray, F Sheahan, J O'Driscoll, M O'Driscoll, D O'Callaghan, J Fogarty, U O'Callaghan, J Murray (capt). Replacements: T Kiernan for Kelly (22 mins), K Murphy for Murray (half-time).

Garryowen: M Connolly; M McNamara, K Hartigan, B O'Neill, K O'Riordan; D Crotty, T Tierney; N Hartigan, P Humphreys, R Laffan, S Leahy (capt), D Peters, R Powell, P Hogan, P Neville. Replacements: J Giltenane for Laffan (half-time), C Varley for Powell (half-time), F Costelloe for Peters (63 mins).

Referee: A Lewis (Leinster).