His third sub-par round means Downes is now on eight-under for the tournament, but his hold on the lead is far from secure.

Stephen Leaney went round in a flawless round of 68, with four birdies and no dropped shots, to take sole possession of second place on seven-under, while seven players are tied on six-under.

Steven Conran, Stuart Appleby, Matthew Millar, Peter Lonard, Craig Jones, American Ricky Barnes and Stephen Allan are the septet who will all fancy their chances of challenging for the title on Sunday.

Barnes, the only non-Australian in the top 20, dropped shots on the 16th and 17th on Saturday to fall away from a share of the lead and finish further down the bunched leaderboard than he would have hoped.

There was a hole-in-one from Terry Price on the fifth hole, and at one stage he looked set to challenge for the lead.

But Price, who earned €5,800 for charity with his ace, played the back nine in three-over-par 39 to undo his excellent performance on the front nine. He finished with a level-par 72 and will enter the final day on an aggregate three under par.

Best scorers of the day were Wade Ormsby and Michael Barry who each returned scores of five-under-par 67, but they remained well down the field and needing to score even better on Sunday to come into contention.