Munster J1 League – Thurles 10 – Sundays Well 48

Thurles resumed their league campaign with an away fixture on the hallowed artificial turf of Musgrave Park in Cork City against Sundays Well in a rare Saturday fixture at this level. Thurles acceding to a home team request to play the game on a Saturday, something Thurles’s more famous opposition would have regularly done when competing at various levels of the All-Ireland Senior League throughout their long history before making the drop to Junior rugby last year and setting up a first ever competitive first team fixture between both clubs. With a cluster of teams in the league table from fourth to eight stuck on six wins five losses and the league having being clinched already by Thomond with two games remaining, the only prize at stake was points towards top four status and a tilt at the All-Ireland Cup Competition next year. When the league fixtures were announced last year this is one that the team and management alike would have felt was a long shot, given Sundays Well’s stated determination and recruitment with the aim of resecuring senior status as quickly as possible. However, Well have also shown some indifferent away form of late and before yesterday had a similar win record to Thurles albeit they had only lost Thomond on their home patch so far this year, so it was always going to take a big performance from the away team to get something out this game. Thurles received a short impromptu pep talk from the An Tánaiste Micheál Martin in their dressing room before taking the pitch for their warm-up who happened to be attending a function in the home teams clubhouse.

Thurles kicked off this game playing with the aid of a strong wind blowing in from the Dolphin clubhouse end of Musgrave park. The first 30 minutes of this game was pretty much tit for tat. Well took the lead after 15 minutes with a penalty after Thurles were penalised for a high tackle just twenty metres in front. Tackle height discipline was to be a trend on the day with several penalties conceded for this offence by Thurles culminating in a red card for Colin Nolin on 32 minutes, who may have been the scape goat for several previous offences, that said it was an extremely harsh call. Thurles will point to this period of the game as being instrumental in their eventual unhinging in the minute period before half time in that they failed to stress the Well line and maintain any consistent time in their half. Despite a dominant scrum and strong wind assisting, Thurles could not hold onto the ball. Their direct pick and drive game was gaining traction when utilised but moves broke down through poor handling in the backline, with misplaced passes and dropped balls coughing up valuable possession regularly. This was coupled with an ineffectual display kicking from hand with two drop offs landing short of ten metres and two balls kicked out on the full. This was in contrast to very few handling and no kicking errors from the home team, as well as better tackle discipline, line speed and aggression, as well clever slowing of Thurles ball that went unpoliced by the referee. Sundays Well exited easily and were able to counterattack with ease through this period but Thurles were hanging in there. Their antipodean import and top scorer Logan Henry causing damage with ball in hand and some booming clearance kicks and generally demonstrating that he is a player who is very comfortable at this level and probably would be at any tier of the current AIB senior leagues, he would go on to claim a personal tally of two tries, a penalty and five conversionsbefore the final whistle sounded. Jack Flanagan levelled the scores with a well taken penalty to make it 3-3 after 30 minutes. But this was as good as it got and Well number 8 had opened their try account after some phases and an easy run from five yards almost untouched by the Thurles defence. In a stretch between the thirtieth minute and half time Thurles had conceded the bonus point, lost a man through are card and saw the score push out to 27 -3 and effectively ending the contest.

That said Thurles despite being 27-3 down at half time managed to stabilise the score board in the second half through some dogged resistance. The reintroduction of Eoghan Dwyer and Ciaran Ryan introducing some much needed physicality as well improved commitment and workrate from the Thurles pack and in general the team dug in to prevent further scores. The away team were eventually undone by a lineout and driving maul from 10 metres pushing the score to 34-3 after 55 minutes. More frustratingly the next try came when the Thurles backline misplaced an easy pass, after some hard gained field position within the Well twenty metre line, the move breaking down and Well counter attacking the entire length of the field scoring under the post to make it 41 – 3. Steven Kirwan introduced for John Shaw scored Thurles only try after some very direct carrying barrelling his way over from five metres with time running out and generally had a very good twenty-minute sojourn. Thurles emptied the bench, with Jack Kavanagh, Donnacha Ryan and Ciaran Murphy replacing some tired forwards, Noah Mellor also replaced Seamie Holohan and unfortunately for Thurles, Cathal Hayes had to be replaced due to a serious shoulder injury with time almost up, another black spot on a generally bleak day for the team. The last score of the day was due to a misread in the Thurles midfield allowing a line break by Sundays Well, easily finished off to make the final score 48 – 10.

This was probably Thurles’s flattest performance all year and whilst we have lost a few games none were as emphatic as this. This team prides itself on its defence and will be very disappointed with both the physical and technical aspects of their tackling display, this was not helped by some very over-officious refereeing. The new tackle height law, whilst it’s intent is for the benefit of player welfare, it is fast becoming a frustration for coaches given the inconsistency with which it is refereed within games and from official to official. It is difficult, without the benefit of a TMO as is available at the elite level, for a referee to spot everything or even to get tackle height calls correct all the time admittedly. A couple of instances of late, of players calling decisions and feigning serious injury, more akin to elite soccer teams, seems to be making its way into junior rugby further putting pressure on referees. That said players who do not attempt to hinge or drop their body height are running the gauntlet and this is something that Thurles will have to continue to focus on for the reminder of the season and into next season. Thurles will also be disappointed with their ball retention with at least six or seven strips in the tackle which may be down to some technical naivete or down to a cleverer and hungrier opponent working harder in the tackle area. Coupled with the aforementioned unforced kicking and handling errors, a red and yellow card, as well as  a twenty plus penalty count,Graham Rowntree’s charges, who played on the same pitchthe night before, would have struggled to get a foothold in this game. But it should be pointed out that Sundays Well were a very good outfit in this kind of form and more accustomed to playing on this surface. They brought a physicality, conditioning and pace of game that stressed the away team, which was a possible reason for so many mistakes and penalty concessions. It doesn’t get any easier for Thurles, with a growing injury list and some players playing although not fully fit as they welcome league champions Thomond to Loughtagala next week in their penultimate game of the league. They will have to be much improved to prevent a similarly comprehensive defeat.  

Thurles lined out as follows:

Ger McCormack, Shane Nugent, John Shaw, Luke Fogarty,Colin Nolan, Mark Cummins, Peter Kinane, Sam Quinlan, Ciaran Ryan, Seamus Holahan, Jack Flanagan. Cathal Hayes, Sonny Dwyer, Luke Fogarty, Sean McGrath, Paddy McGrath.

Subs: Ciaran Murphy(for Shane Nugent), Jack Kavanagh(Ger McCormack), Donnacha Ryan(Mark Cummins), Noah Mellor(Seamus Holohan), Andrew Bourke (Peter Kinane), Danny Diamini, Kieran O’Hagan, Eoghan Dwyer(Sean McGrath).