BRIAN O'MEARA made a welcome return to competitive rugby when coming on in the first half for Lansdowne against Clontarf yesterday.

The Leinster scrum-half, who damaged ligaments in his knee against Cork Constitution before Christmas, came on four minutes before half-time for injured scrumhalf Shane Whelan.

O'Meara's introduction certainly made a difference for Lansdowne and they definitely had a lot more purpose on his introduction.

However, Lansdowne had to rely for the most part on the thinking of Corey Burt to keep them within touching distance of their opponents.

Lansdowne had used the ploy of channelling their play through the middle and when Clontarf erred as they inevitably did in the first half, Burt was able to kick over penalties from fairly central positions.

The problem for Lansdowne, however, was that while they knew where the line was, they had difficulty for the most part in finding their man. Clontarf by the hour mark were already three-quarters of the way to registering their seventh bonus point of the season when Derek Keane scored a terrific try from halfway and this was followed by an equally spectacular try from Marc Hewitt with three minutes to go to seal another fine victory for the visitors.

In contrast, Lansdowne are still waiting to register their first bonus point from seven games.

Keane's try left Lansdowne trailing by 13 points after a reasonably good start from the home side. The game had seen Clontarf take the lead after six minutes when they were awarded a penalty.

A Lansdowne player had ventured offside and Marc Hewitt attempted a drop goal and Clontarf full-back Dara O'Shea duly obliged with a straightforward penalty. Clontarf were lucky not to make the line after that when a move started by number eight Phil Perdue saw the ball change between five players.

Former Irish schools player Mark Ranz-McDonald then embarked on a run down the touchline and it took a firm tackle from a Lansdowne back to put the Clontarf wing into touch.

Shortly after that, Lansdowne handed Clontarf a straightforward enough penalty which O'Shea converted from just inside the 40.

With Clontarf centre Breifne O'Donnell putting in some excellent challenges, Lansdowne were struggling to make any sort of impact on this game but a defiant break by Lansdowne centre Greg Stafford finally gave the home side a foothold inside the Clontarf 22 and with 15 minutes gone, Corey Burt opened Lansdowne's account with a straightforward enough penalty.

And with the Lansdowne pack exerting their pressure, the home side were back on level terms when Burt added his second kick two minutes later.

Clontarf flanker Declan Quinn was then forced to retire with an injured shoulder midway through the first half but there was better news for Clontarf when O'Shea touched down just inside the corner flag following an excellent run down the right hand side.

But Clontarf then conceded two penalties from a central position to allow Burt to kick Lansdowne into a 12-11 lead at the break.

The visitors, however, were then rocked by two Clontarf tries inside the hour mark. O'Donnell scored straight after the resumption and then Derek Keane raced half the length of the field to score under the posts.

O'Shea added his second conversion of the second half to leave it at 25-12 before Lansdowne wing Fiachra Baynes came round the long way to score just to the right of the posts.

Burt and O'Shea then traded penalties before Clontarf wrapped up the game with three minutes remaining when Marc Hewitt took an intercepted pass at halfway to make the line with O'Shea making the conversion.

LANSDOWNE N Walsh; J O'Donovan, G Stafford, B McGeever, F Baynes; C Burt, S Whelan; J Lyne, K Corrigan, E Bohan, B Quinn, D Toner, A Maher, R Boucher, D Lavin Subs B O'Mara for Whelan, 36 mins; M Nathan for Boucher, 77 mins

CLONTARF D O'Shea; M Ranz-McDonald, N O'Brien, B O'Donnell, D Keane; M Hewitt, F O'Loughlin; J Wickham, N Carson, R Sweeney, A Trenier, M Coetzer, D Quinn, D O'Brien, P Purdue. Subs: D French for Quinn 20 mins Referee A McDowell (IRFU)