A 74th minute Damien Varley try, converted by Eoghan Hickey, had given Garryowen a one-point advantage but Cork Constitution weren't going to slide off into the summer quietly. They worked their way deep into opposition territory as the clock ticked into injury time and through sheer grit and a bit of cuteness, they found themselves into dropgoal territory. Musgrave Park held its breath as Daragh Lyons, the young Con out-half, pulled the trigger but he sliced his kick to the left and wide.

Game over? Not a bit of it.

The fortunate thing about Lyons's sliced effort was that it didn't go dead and instead, Garryowen prop John Staunton carried the ball over his own line and Con were awarded a five-metre scrum.

One more chance for Con and they worked hard. Frank Cogan and the rest of the forwards carried the ball around the fringes and Lyons was served up with another dropgoal opportunity. For the second time in as many minutes, the crowd held their breath as the ball left the out-half 's boot, but again his effort veered wide and the title was Garryowen's.

While Con might feel a little hard done by, you could have made a case for either side winning this game and while Garryowen were the dominant side over the 80 minutes . . . mainly thanks to their aggressive back-row and excellent half-backs . . . Con looked by far the most potent side when they moved the ball wide.

They were, however, slow to start and Eoghan Hickey, Garryowen's out-half, knocked over two penalties in the first half hour to give his side a deserved lead. However, when Con did get going, they looked pretty dangerous. Denis Hurley shifted them into gear with a break that eventually led to Richard Lane knocking over a penalty and moments before the interval, they scored the first try of the game.

Tim Ryan, their tight-head prop, barrelled forward with the ball in hand and having broken one tackle, he had the presence of mind to release David Lyons on his shoulder.

The out-half ran direct at the remaining defenders, switching the ball inside to the onrushing Tom Gleeson, who finished things off with a stroll to the line.

Lane converted to give Con a slightly undeserved 10-6 halftime lead but Garryowen, with a sense of injustice in their bellies perhaps, started the second half much the better side. Hickey landed his third penalty on 53 minutes to narrow the gap to a single point and moments later Conor Kilroy was denied what would have been a glorious try by a great Dan Nethery tackle.

But Con came again. Openside flanker Ed Leamy barged his way forward off the back of a scrum on the Garryowen 22 and Hurley ran a perfect line to finish things off when the ball was swung wide. Crucially, however, Lane missed the convert and Garryowen sniffed an opportunity. The Limerick side rolled a line-out maul ominously towards the Con line on 74 minutes and although they were stopped short on a couple of occasions, Varley was eventually credited with a try when four Garryowen men flopped over the line under the eyes of Alan Lewis.

Critically though, unlike at the other end, Hickey landed the extras and with the help of some doughty late defending, and a couple of misses from Lyons, the title was on its way back to Limerick.

CORK CONSTITUTION D Hurley; R Lane, T Gleeson, D Nethery, C Healy; D Lyons, P McKee; Tom Ryan, D Murray, Tim Ryan, S O'Connor, M O'Connell, R Noonan, E Leamy, F Cogan (c) Subs J Maloney for O'Connor, 55mins; R Quinn for D Murray and C Murphy for Tom Ryan, 76mins; C Quaid for Nethery, 80mins GARRYOWEN C Kilroy; A O'Loughlin, K Hartigan, C Doyle, Ciaran O'Boyle; E Hickey, G Hurley; R Brosnan, D Varley, J Staunton, M Melbourne, E Mackey, P Neville (c), P Malone, A Kavanagh Subs Cillian O'Boyle for Hartigan, 49mins; D Sheehan for Mackey, 65mins