Garryowen are still battling for honours on two fronts after gaining a hard-fought 12-10 league win over Clontarf at Castle Avenue.
The AIB Cup finalists have moved themselves onto 43 points, with fourth-placed Shannon just ahead of them on scoring difference.
Three Conor Kilroy penalties saw Garryowen lead 9-7 at half-time, with Clontarf's 25th-minute try ironically coming from a Kilroy mistake.
He failed to hold onto a missed penalty attempt from Conal Keane and 'Tarf centre Daragh O'Shea was on hand to score.
But Keane and Kilroy swapped further penalties as the visitors held on for a precious win.
Garryowen were missing injured Munster out-half Eoghan Hickey, with Alan Kingsley standing in for him alongside Gerry Hurley.
'Tarf had some early lineout problems, with Johnny Wickham struggling to find his men out of touch, and the visitors should have capitalised by scoring the opening try.
A leg-pumping burst forward by lock Ed Mackey got them within range and when the ball was spread out to the right, captain Paul Neville should have made use of an overlap but he chose to go it alone and the ‘Tarf cover swarmed over him.
That spell of pressure did yield a tenth-minute penalty for Garryowen and full-back Kilroy obliged with a well-hit right-sided kick which flew straight through the uprights.
Showing that distance was no problem either, Kilroy thumped over his second penalty of the afternoon, four minutes later, from just inside his own half.
However, Kilroy’s day soured when he tried to field a wayward penalty attempt from Keane behind his own posts, but the Garryowen number 15 misjudged it and the ball bobbled out of grasp. The alert O’Shea, who did excellently to follow up on the kick, was on hand to steal the ball and ground it for an opportunistic try.
Keane added the extras, but in a game that was mainly thrashed out in the forwards, a third Kilroy kick in injury-time saw Paul Cunningham’s side go in at the break with a 9-7 buffer.
With game-breakers Hurley and Fiach O’Loughlin, who used to play for Garryowen’s great rivals Shannon, being kept quiet, the packs continued to dispute every inch of territory.
Kilroy nudged Garryowen 12-7 ahead before Keane replied with a 35-metre penalty in the 62nd-minute, setting up a tension-filled finale.
It was in a frantic final ten minutes that Garryowen doggedly managed to hold onto that lead and see out their fourth win in eight games on the road this season.
‘Tarf almost got over for a try in the 72nd-minute when a Matt Nethery pass had O’Shea scampering towards the line but a great tackle from Ciaran O’Boyle halted the attack just metres out and the visitors regrouped.
Territory was all ‘Tarf’s in the closing stages but the north Dubliners struggled to make a dent on the scoreboard. Out-half Niall O’Brien sent a drop goal to the right of the posts and Keane missed a penalty as Garryowen, with some defiant defending, took the spoils.
Scorers: Clontarf: Try: Daragh O’Shea; Con: Conal Keane; Pen: Conal Keane. Garryowen: Pens: Conor Kilroy 4
