Munster J1 League – Thurles 17 – Muskerry 14

Thurles entertained Muskerry in gameday seven of the Munster Junior One league last Sunday. Thurles having wonthe toss chose to play with the gale force southerly blowing from the clubhouse end in the first half. And with the aid of the wind Thurles very quickly found themselves attacking within the away teams twenty-two. A series of pick and drives by the pack were just held up short before Thurles fed their back line, James Maher hitting Sonny Dwyer on the crash ball only to be held up inches short, Luke Kelly following on picked up from the ruck and dived in for Thurles’s opening score under the posts, with the conversion added Thurles led 7 – 0 after 3 minutes. Thurles were moving the ball very well and their structured ball carrying in the first 15 minutes had the away team scrambling. On twelve minutes, Conor Moloney who carried tirelessly all day for Thurles broke a tackle and broke into the Muskerry twenty-two, offloading brilliantly as the cover got to him to the supporting Eoin Dwyer who broke a couple tackles before sprinting in for Thurles’s second try close to the posts. This was as good as it got for Thurles in the first half and although having powered to an early fourteen-point lead, Thurles failed to register another score for the entire game. This was due to severalfactors, but paramount among them was a deterioration in conditions, some savvy play by a big opposition pack who played to their strengths and one or two refereeing decisions that went against the home team. For the period from fifteen minutes to thirty minutes Thurles, through great defensive work and line speed kept the Muskerry team pinned in their own half. But the away team held on to the ball using their big forwards to carry and recycle for long periods, albeit going over and back across the field, but all the time running down the clock and the negating considerable wind advantage for Thurles. A pivotal moment came on twenty-nine minutes when Thurles winger Luke Fogarty was somewhat harshly adjudged to have deliberately batted down a ball in attemptingto intercept a pass in an area of the field where there was absolutely no threat of an imminent score. This reduced the Thurles to 14 men. From the ensuing penalty Muskerry gottheir first field position in the Thurles twenty-two having found kicking into the wind difficult. Thurles were defending comfortably when Mark Cummins was deemed to have tip tackled a Muskerry forward despite having safely landed the player and never going above the horizontal. This gave Muskerry the platform their large pack needed, a good lineout maul and subsequent phases saw them eventually breach the Thurles line close to the posts, well converted by the Muskerry fly half into the wind to leave the score at 14 – 7. Thurles desperately tried to add to their tally in the ten minutes before half time but were unsuccessful.

Thurles kicked off the second half into the teeth of worsening wind conditions and were very soon on the defensive. Any possession for Muskerry resulting in long wind assistedclearances pinning Thurles into their own twenty-two for long periods. The Thurles defence held up well until thirteen minutes into the second half when after sustained pressure and a number of penalties the Muskerry second row offloaded out of a maul close to the line for their winger to scoop up the ball and score. The try was converted to leave the score at 14 – 14 with twenty-five minutes remaining. Thurles  rallied and after some hard carrying and approach play slowly gaining ground up the field they won a penalty thirty metres out and just left of the posts. Thurles opted to kick for points into a very difficult breeze. Possibly in hindsight, backing their lineout and trying to maximise the return on the very few hard-earnedvisits to the Muskerry twenty-two may have been the better call. A successful kick only securing three points, and giving up hard earned yards with the kick off, but a missed kick gave up a free drop out from the twenty-two and which landed all the way down at the Thurles twenty-two and resulted instantaneous pressure again, which again after some desperate Thurles defence ended up with a shot at goal for Muskerry straight in front wind assisted which they duly converted with twenty minutes left to go. Loads of time left for either team snatch the game. Thurles did give themselves lifelines through some very hard work by their forwards and had enough possession in the opposition twenty-two and went very close with ten minutes remaining to adding to their try total only for a handling error close to the line to give Muskerry a scrum and chance to relieve their lines. With ten to go Thurles brought on some fresh legs to add to DonnachaRyan who replaced the injured Sam Quinlan at half time, Danny Diamini for Ger McCormack, Jack Kavanagh for Steven Kirwan, and Peter Wall for Mark Cummins. Muskerry had a late penalty chance with seven minutes to go but missed. Thurles fought hard for the remining few minutes but were thwarted by strong Muskerry defence and some tired bodies and misplaced and dropped passes.

Thurles will have some well-earned rest over Christmas to recover and hopefully get some injured players back in time for their next league game away to Bandon on the 14th of January.

Thurles lined out as follows:

Ger McCormack, Shane Nugent, Stephen Kirwan, Luke Kelly, Colin Nolan, Mark Cummins, Sam Quinlan, Conor Moloney, Seamus Holahan, James Maher, Cathal Hayes, Sonny Dwyer, Eoghan Dwyer, Luke Fogarty, Paddy McGrath.

Subs: Ciaran Murphy, Jack Kavanagh (for G. McCormick), Dan Diamini (for Steven Kirwan), Donnacha Ryan (for Sam Quinlan), Peter Wall, Jack Flanagan, Noah Mellor, Kieran O’Hagan.