Boland's advantage over Steve Hendy now lies at 2'21" - the Dorset driver has consolidated his second-placed position, taking eight seconds out of Bob Fowden and Gerry Hynes.

The big mover is Tim Ball, who entered this morning's action tied in fifth with David James, 35 seconds behind fourth-placed John Price.

This has now changed on its head, with Ball just outside the podium positions, with a seven-second advantage over Price, who himself is now just 19 seconds ahead of David James.

At this rate, we could easily see the Gorey man overtake Hereford driver Price - which would be a remarkable showing from both two-wheel drive cars of Ball and James.

Shay Power, meanwhile, has been seen parked up - elevating Aaron McHale up one notch.

Following the retirement earlier of Martin O'Connell, Kieran Molloy is now leading a posse of three rounding off the top ten, holding off Derek Smith and Tom Holton.

A very fresh Ron Guha, who's navigating for Holton, made a point of how the Celica is catching Smith: "We'll have him by the end of the day!"

Leaderboard - Unofficial after 12 stages

 1 Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey    Wexford    Subaru WRC S7      1:08:37
 2 Steve Hendy/Aled Davies           Dorset     Escort Cosworth    1:10:54
 3 Bob Fowden/Jerry Hynes            Wales      Mitsubishi Lancer  1:11:17
 4 Tim Ball/Rob Watson               England    Darrian T90        1:13:09
 5 John Price/Caroline Price         Hereford   Metro 6R4          1:13:16
 6 David James/Jim Crowe             Gorey      Ford Escort BDX    1:13:35
 7 Aaron McHale/Elva Roe             Dublin     Mitsubishi Lancer  1:14:00
 8 Kieran Molloy/Brian Boland        Tipperary  Mitsubishi Lancer  1:14:17
 9 Derek Smith/Paddy Flanagan        Wicklow    Ford Escort        1:14:22
10 Tom Holton/Ron Guha               Meath      Toyota Celica      1:14:32
11 Tim Wilson/Laurie Walker          London     Subaru Impreza WRC 1:15:16
12 Noel Redmond/David Doyle          Wexford    Lancer Evo 6       1:16:29