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Munster J1 League & Munster Junior Challenge Cup 1stRound

Thurles 31 Clonakilty 24

This was a double-up fixture with the Munster Junior 1 league points as well as a place in the second round of the Munster Challenge Cup on offer as both sides were due to meet at the same venue in both competitions. It was therefore wisely decided by both management teams to save on travel and fixture congestion for both teams by making this doubleleague and cup fixture.

Thurles kicked off this game and were straight down to business. The opening exchanges were frenetic, but the early signs were that home team were getting to grips with their more chaotic opponents’ style of play. Thurles having made a couple of early incursions into the Clonakilty 22 only for a lapse in discipline see them fall short were made to wait 12 minutes before they registered their first score. Thurles having made some good ground by working the blind side from halfway set up a good field position with a ruck inside the Clonakilty 22m line went to work with their forward patterns. Two hard carries and quick rucks initially by Sam Quinlan and closely followed by Luke Kelly set up another quick ruck 5 m out, scrum half Seamie Holohan fizzed his pass to Sonny Dwyer on the crash and he knifed his way in under the sticks for the first of his brace on the day. James Maher converted, 7 - 0 to Thurles. Thurles were in the groove at this stage with their structures and phase play between backs and forwards threatening to open up the away defence, who were scrambling to contain the Thurles attack. It took just 20 minutes for Thurles to cross the line again, in arguably a better demonstration of this team’s ball playing ability than the first try. As usual some good ball carrying and recycling by the hard-working Thurles pack generated space on the open side. Great handling by backs an forwards released Cathal Hayes down the left wing, making good ground and swivelling out of tackles only to be hauled down short of the line, a quick recycle blind side and great sidestep by Mark Cummins looked to have put Thurles in for what appeared to be their second try. Much to the surprise of the home crowd the try was disallowed for losing control during the grounding. To the home teams’ credit, they shrugged off this set back and went back to work. It would take them another 10 minutes get the scoreboard moving again, a good tactical kick by Seamie Holohan had Clon back peddling into their dead ball area. The referee adjudged that Clon had touched the ball before it went dead and awarded Thurles a five-metrescrum. From the ensuing scrum, Seamie Holohan quickly fed James Maher, who backed himself, breaking through his opposite numbers tackle, and scooting in close to the posts for Thurles second which he duly converted. 14 – 0 to Thurles with 30 minutes on the clock. This score sparked the away team into life, aided by a string of penalties conceded by Thurles, Clon got some good field position within Thurles 22. A series of tap penalties and carries saw them eventually crashover from close range. This score was converted to leave it 14 – 7 after 35 minutes. With half time looming the high energystyle of the away team was stressing the Thurles defence again when a big tackle by Luke Kelly dislodged the ball from a Clon attacker. The ball was pounced on by Sonny Dwyer who streaked away down field, feeding the supporting Paddy McGrath on his shoulder as the cover closed in on him onhalfway. McGrath looked like he would take it all the way in but was caught by the scrambling cover defence 20m out, but not before he offloaded to Sonny Dwyer who glided in untouched to complete his brace for the day. 21 – 7 to Thurles at half time.

Clonakilty were the first to register a score in the second half when after a good approach play they manged to breach the Thurles defence again scoring close to the posts at the clubhouse end. Crucially a relatively easy conversion chance was missed which still left Thurles with a two-scoreadvantage 21 – 12. But it took just another ten minutes for Thurles to respond and put some breathing space between themselves and the away team again. Again, some good phase play set up by a lineout form a penalty in the Clon 22 saw Kieran O’Hagan sidestep his way close to the line. Two hard carries and rucks later saw Peter Kinane crash over close to the posts with some assistance from his back row. This was easily converted by James Maher to push the score out to 28 -12 with 55 minutes on the clock. This was to be his last contribution and he retired through injury to be replaced by Jack Flanagan and at this point Donnacha Ryan also replaced the injured Conor Maloney in backrow. This score gained the bonus point for Thurles and many teams may have thrown in the towel faced with this deficit but Clonakilty to their credit stormed back to register another try, their third which they converted to leave the score at 28 – 19 on 65 minutes. Thurles started to roll in more fresh legs with Stephen Kirwan and Dan Lee replacing Ger McCormack and John Shaw in the front row. Clonakilty were maybe beginning to smell a blood and were chasing their own try bonus point in the closing stages. Thurles freshened the back line replacing wingers Cathal Hayes and Kieran O’Hagan for Noah Mellor and James Devaney, both debuting for the first team in the leaguethis year, to help see out the remaining ten minutes. Clonakilty were to make it even more uncomfortable for Thurles when they managed to secure their fourth and try bonus point with only minutes remaining. Crucially, they failed to convert which left the score at 28-24 with just couple of plays left in the game. The last phase of this game saw Clonakilty penalised for crossing leaving Paddy McGrathwith a long-range penalty to seal the game, which he comfortably converted to secure the 31 -24 win for the home team.

This was arguably the most complete performance by Thurles so far this year and it had to be to see off a very competitive and fit Clonakilty side. The Thurles defence, so meagre this far this year was breached four times for tries so this will be area to improve upon for the next game but on the flip side the Thurles attack looked dangerous all-day in securing four tries themselves. What will also hearten the Thurles management team and supporters alike was the level of performance given despite a couple of key absentees due to non-availability, injuries and suspensions and the performances of the collective, including big contributions from substitutesmaking their first starts on the first fifteen this year. The team will take a well-earned 2-week hiatus after three hard games on the bounce before their next outing away in the league toCharleville

Thurles lined out as follows:

Ger McCormack, Shane Nugent, John Shaw, Peter Kinane, Luke Kelly, Mark Cummins, Sam Quinlan, Conor Moloney,Seamus Holahan, James Maher, Cathal Hayes, Sonny Dwyer, Luke Fogarty, Ciaran O’Hagan, Paddy McGrath.

Subs: Ciaran Murphy, Dan Lee (for G. McCormick), Stephen Kirwan (for J. Shaw), Noah Mellor (for Cathal Hayes), Donnacha Ryan (for Conor Moloney), James Devaney (for Kieran O’Hagan), Danny Diamini.