GARRYOWEN'S hopes of making the play-offs suffered a serious blow with the Terenure pack inspiring their team to victory at Lakelands Park yesterday. The visitors were never able to counter their opponents' energy up front with the Terenure back row leading by example.

A quiet opening had seen Garryowen full-back, Eoin Hickey, hand the visitors a 63 advantage midway through the half. But following a good spell of pressure from the home side, Terenure went ahead after Garryowen had attempted to clear from behind their posts.

But Terenure number eight, Alex Dunlop, having gathered from halfway, evaded a series of tackles to make the line on the half hour Terenure continued to press and were awarded a penalty try after Garryowen had collapsed the maul.

Rob McCarthy landed the conversion in injury time to leave it 13-6 at half-time.

The second half was 12 minutes old when Terenure out-half, Mark O'Neill, landed a drop goal to extend the gap to 15 points. Then following a great break by Darragh O' Doherty, the ball was popped out to Mark Mahony for a try in the corner. Garryowen registered a late try through Conan Doyle.

TERENURE COLLEGE J Coffey; A Hughes, J Bollard, G Coffey, R McCarthy; M O'Neill, M Mahony; J Barretto, J Blaney, S Nolan, D O'Doherty, K O'Dwyer, B Moroney, C Connolly, A Dunlop Subs J Hamilton for Barretto, 72 mins GARRYOWEN E Hickey; A O'Loughlin, K Hartigan, F Quaglia, C O'Boyle; C Doyle, A Kingsley; A Kingsley, R Brosnan, D Varley, E McGovern, M Melbourne, E Mackey, P Melville, A Kavanagh, D Sherry Subs D Sheehan for Varley, 57 mins; P Humphreys for Mackey, 74 mins Referee D Keane(ARLB)