SO Clontarf rumble on, chipping away at their attempt at a first-ever All Ireland League title, sailing into next week's final three years after their only appearance to date.

They were easy winners in the end here yesterday, rolling over a Con side that just made too many mistakes to stay in the game. Clontarf wing Niall O'Brien ran in the three tries that made the difference but two of those came from unforced Con errors. It was the losing of the game.

It wasn't fun by any stretch.

The first half was bitty and brutal, with more than one sly dig left in here and there. The wind was strong in Con's favour but save for the odd garryowen, it wasn't too great a factor.

Con took the lead with a fifth-minute Dara Lyons penalty but Clontarf reeled them in shortly afterwards with the first of their four tries. The heavy lifting was done by second-row Alan Trenier, whose forceful run split the Con defence open and drew two tackles, leaving space for scrum-half Fiach O'Loughlin. Full-back Darragh O'Shea . . . who later threaded a brilliant conversion from the right touchline after the first of O'Brien's tries . . . missed a much easier one here.

That made it 5-3 to the home side and for most of the rest of the half, it was attritional fare. Neither 22 saw very much action while the biggest cheers from the crowd were in response to heavy tackles . . . one from Trenier on Con centre Conor Quaid was especially well nailed.

Lyons had inched Con 6-5 ahead before we saw a decent piece of continuity, Clontarf wending their way up the pitch from their own 10metre line on 25 minutes.

There followed an intense five minutes of pressure on the Con line, as Clontarf chose to kick three consecutive penalties to touch rather than take easy points.

Something had to give and in the end, it was a smart break by O'Loughlin that did the damage. He sent Peter O'Brien away and his pass to Niall O'Brien left an easy canter over. O'Shea's wonderful conversion made it 12-6, which stood as the half-time scoreline.

Con needed to blitz the second half but they barely got going at all. Clontarf, while by no means dominant, made sure they did just enough to keep their line secure.

That, of course, was all they needed to do to keep their noses in front. They didn't make it as easy on themselves as they might have, though, O'Shea missing another two eminently kickable penalties.

But O'Brien's other two tries came as Con tried to force the game. First a dropped pass by wing Diarmuid O'Riordan on the Clontarf 10-metre line was scooped up by Marc Hewitt who put the scrum-capped wing away unchallenged for the game-sealing score.

And as time ran out, O'Brien again pounced on sloppiness, this time in the Con 22.

CLONTARF D O'Shea; N O'Brien, M Hewitt, J Downey, D Keane; P O'Brien, F O'Loughlin; J Wickham, N Carson, R Sweeney, A Trenier, A Wood, D Quinn, D O'Brien, J Ellison Subs MR O'Donnell for Sweeney, 56 mins; K Dorian for Wickham, 63 mins; D Ffrench for Trenier, 75 mins; M Woods for O'Loughlin, 75 mins

CORK CONSTITUTION R Lane; D O'Riordan, T Gleeson, C Quaid, C Healy; T Ryan, D Murray, M Ross, J Maloney, S Cotrell, M O'Connell, B Cutriss, F Cogan Subs E Leahy for Lyons, 63 mins; A Ryan for O'Riordan, 67 mins; L Hill for Cotrell, 67 mins Referee D Courtney (Leinster)