Garryowen Cup Final 2023/24

Thurles 28 Clonmel 13

Last Sunday, in a keenly contested game for eighty minutes with local rivals Clonmel, Thurles finally  got their hands back on the Garryowen cup and secured their first piece of silverware of the year. This was somewhat symbolic given that the club, now celebrating its 100th year in existence, first won this trophy in its first year 1924, on that occasion defeating Fethard. 

Thurles kicked off into strong south westerly blowing in from the dressing room corner in almost perfect conditions for rugby and were very quickly into their stride, Paddy McGrath regathering the kick off and winning early possession for Thurles. This led to Thurles holding on to the ball through several phases in Clonmel’s half before working some quick ball for their backs to handle with Sonny Dwyer putting Paddy McGrath through a gap 40m out. McGrath needed no further invitation and ignoring support inside and out he backed himself and side stepped his way in to score Thurles’s first try after 5 minutes. McGrath narrowly missed the conversion of his own try to leave Thurles in format 5-0 after 6 minutes. The large Thurles support did not have to wait too long more for the next Thurles try when just 5 minutes later Ciaran Ryan, unstoppable all day with ball in hand, burst through the Clonmel defence on halfway, making 25m before transferring to the supporting Sam Quinlan who sprinted in close to the posts for Thurles second try. Again, Thurles failed to convert leaving the score at 10-0 after 11 minutes. Only 4 more minutes had elapsed before Thurles again scored a try, a good positional kick by James Maher into the dressing room corner and great chase and tackle by Mark Cummins and Matty Kelly saw the ball spill fortuitously into the path of Seamus Holahan who gathered and dived for the line close to the corner. The conversion was again missed leaving the score at an impressive 15-0 with just barely 15 minutes of the game elapsed.  At this point it seemed like this could get ugly for Clonmel who were struggling to deal with Thurles ball carriers, quick rucks and handling. To their credit they hung in there when another Thurles try may have delivered the knockout blow. Playing with aid of the breeze, some clever kicking and Thurles ill-discipline kept the home team pinned down in their own 22 for the next 5 minutes. After a series of penalties and phases in the Thurles 22, the Clonmel scrum half darted in from a quick tap penalty as a tiring Thurles defence switched off. This was converted to make it 15 -7 and game on. Clonmel were to have the better of the second quarter and Thurles could not get any sustained field position in Clonmel’s half and spent most this phase of the game defending and consequently coughing up penalties. Strong Thurles defence kept Clonmel try less but they did register further scores on 35 and 40 minutes respectively.

With Head Coach, Kevin Leamy’s instructions ringing in their ears from half time Thurles proceeded to use the wind and kicked well for field position at the start of the second half but also mixed this with good counterattacking. On one occasion saw Thurles cleverly shaping to kick down blind and changing the call to run the ball on the blind side after the opposition winger was seen retreating to cover the kick and making great yardage to the opposition 22. With the game in the balance Thurles decided to rotate some of their strong bench, with Cathal Hayes coming in to make an instant impact racing in from 40m after a great counterattack and handling by Thurles backs and forwards to bolster Thurles’s narrow lead – Matty Kelly excellent all day on the wing for Thurles took over the kicking duties and landed a great left footed conversion from the left hand side. Having put in a big shift Dan Lee was replaced by the experienced Ger McCormack and Colin Nolan, again after a huge contribution, made way for Conor Moloney. This helped Thurles ball carrying and defensive efforts and they were to dominate possession for the next 15 minutes. A great break down the wing and kick ahead by Matty Kelly saw him regather his own kick only to be tackled a metre from the line. An ambitious pass and some mishandling saw Thurles cough up a great try chance with the line at their mercy giving Clonmel an exit via a 5m scrum. Moments later another great ball carry deep into the Clonmel by Peter Kinane was undone as an attempted offload in the tackle did not stick and again giving Clonmel a scrum and a chance to clear their lines.  Thurles were however the dominant team at this point but it took until the 65th minute to register their next score, a sweetly struck penalty from 35m by Matty Kelly. Thurles again freshened up the team with subs Jack Kavanagh for John Shaw, Donnacha Ryan for Peter Kinane and Kieran O’Hagan on for Paddy McGrath. Another well taken penalty by Kelly on 75mins pushed the lead out to 15 points and virtually guaranteed Thurles the win. Clonmel however pushed hard and threatened the Thurles line in the last few minutes. In these closing minutes Eoghan Dwyer received a yellow card for high tackle that saw Thurles down to 14 for the remaining moments of the game. Some stout defensive work, a growing strength of this team and focus area for new the head coach, saw Thurles close out the game with their line intact for the second half.

This was another superb team performance and three wins on the bounce has created some positive momentum going into the start of the league campaign away to newly promoted Kanturk in a fortnights time.  Mark Cummins was nominated player of the match by head coach Leamy, a close-run thing with team captain Sonny Dwyer. 

Thurles lined out as follows:

Dan Lee, Shane Nugent, John Shaw, Colin Nolan, Peter Kinane, Mark Cummins, Sam Quinlan, Ciaran Ryan, Seamus Holahan, James Maher, Luke Fogarty, Sonny Dwyer, Eoghan Dwyer, Matty Kelly, Paddy McGrath.

Subs: Ciaran Murphy, Dan Diamini, Richard Holohan, James Butler, Cathal Hayes, Stephen Kirwan, Donnacha Ryan, Peter Wall, Kieran O’Hagan, Gordon Murray, Andrew Bourke, Nate Morehu, Jerry Ryan, Conor Ryan, Alex Bourke