A DOZY type of game at Templeville Road. A stiff breeze. A full house of 1,500. An American high school band from Atlanta. A first-ever meeting in the AIL of St Mary's and Terenure. All the ingredients for a lively game of rugby.

However, there wasn't that much at stake, save pride. Did anyone really believe that Shannon would slip up to Old Crescent and allow the AIL to roll on alive for another week?

As it happened, Shannon could well have shed a few points and still had a cushion going into the final weekend, as Terenure kicked nine points with the wind behind them and then proceeded to take the sting out of their neighbours in the second half with a suffocating performance.

The St Mary's defeat means that Lansdowne have now leap-frogged them to go into second place in the table.

The home side spluttered and coughed but were unable to clear their pipes and stretch their legs in the way they had demonstrated so admirably over the last number of weeks. Irish winger Denis Hickie rarely saw the ball, and his most valuable contribution to the game was to stop Ciaran Clarke in his tracks as he galloped up the left wing in the first half for what looked like a certain try.

Terenure used the wind to some effect in the first halt, but they must have felt that the three penalties kicked by scrum-half Derek Hegarty hardly made up an insurmountable total in light of the ferocious wind. Its strength was demonstrated by Clarke just before the break when his drop out ended up rolling over the St Mary's dead bail line. The resultant scrum on the Terenure 22 was the closest St Mary's came to scoring in the first 40 minutes.

But to emphasise St Mary's flat performance would be to deny Terenure the credit they merit. Hegarty, voted man of the match, was lively behind the scrum and, augmented by the flashes of class and some immaculate kicking into the wind from out half Paul Hennebry, was the most influential player on the visitors' side.

Hegarty's three first-half penalties were landed in the 6th, 19th and 37th minutes, and it was his 40-metre burst from the back of the scrum midway through the second half that set up David Coleman for the game's only try. As Hegarty was grounded by the St Mary's cover, Coleman was at hand to take the pass and canter unmolested into the right corner.

That try killed off any hopes of a St Mary's revival, as Terenure were cautious not to give away any penalties within kicking range. In fact the home side managed only one kick at goal in the entire game, when Craig Fitzpatrick just shaved his effort across the posts in the 49th minutes.