Thurles rounded off a long Munster Junior 1 league seasonwith their thirteenth league outing of the season in Loughtagala with a hard-fought outing against already relegated Crosshaven. At the start of proceedings, the home side were in 9th place but so tight was the spread between 9thand 14th in the league that mathematically, given some teams had games in hand, it was still possible for Thurles to be dragged into the remaining relegation position. There were some upsets across the league on a day when some teams were fighting for survival and others had already checked out,given no improvement or dis-improvement in their finishing position was possible, as was the case it would seem in Mallow, where second from bottom bonus pointed third placed Bandon in a six try bonanza. A fact that near neighbours Clonakilty will be very nervous about as it meansthey are depending on already safe Newcastle West turning over Mallow in the final game to survive the drop to division 2. But none of this was an issue to Thurles who knew that a losing bonus point was probably sufficient to guarantee survival having produced a brilliant bonus point winning performance in Clonakilty on the previous Sunday. 

In good conditions for rugby Thurles received the kick off playing into a stiff the breeze and playing away from the home clubhouse end in the first half. The opening exchanges were very physical, and the away side made it very clear that they were coming to Thurles to restore some pride and to prove a point against the higher placed Thurles. It was,however, the home team who landed the first punch when Sonny Dwyer bull dozed his way past a few defenders and sprinted in from almost the half-way to touch down under the posts for Thurles opening try after nine minutes, easily converted by James Maher. But any illusions Thurles may have had about the away team’s commitment to this gamewere very quickly dispelled when after a sustained period of pressure, they forced their way over for their first try with just 25 minutes gone. Thurles responded well and had stretched out their lead to five points when James Maher landed a penalty kick from twenty metres out to make the score 10 – 5 on 30 minutes. Crosshaven finished the half stronger, aided by some scrappy Thurles play and stunned the large home crowd with a well taken score close the posts at the club house endjust before half time to leave the halftime score at 12 -10 in favour of the visitors. 

Thurles started the second half better and aided by a fresh North westerly kicked well in et opening exchanges to gain good field position. The Thurles pack carried hard through a number of phases before the backs swept the ball back on the open side where they had an overlap, a long skip pass to Jack Flanagan put him into open space with just a short dash to the line to secure Thurles second try. Conversion narrowly missed; this restored the lead to Thurles at 15 -12. The second score of the half came when Thurles having won a penalty on just inside the twenty-two decided to run it.  Two hard carries by the pack secured quick ball before Seamie Holohan flashed a hard flat pass for his centre Luke Fogarty to crash through under the posts for Thurles third try. With the conversionadded this pushed the score out 22 – 12 in favour of the home team with 65 minutes elapsed. Roy Stanley put the icing on the cake on 70 minutes when he burst through a ruck 15 metes out and stretched to dot down for a try that secured a bonus point for Thurles. With time almost up Crosshaven fashioned a good score of their own which they converted to leave just eight between the teams. Thurles just had time for one more play, Sean McGrath pounced on a loose ball from a ruck on the half way and sprinted away before feeding inside to Sam Quinlan who looked to have outsprinted the cover to score but was just tackled short of the line. Crosshaven infringed at the ensuing ruck and were penalised – Jack Flanagan added the three points from close in just before the final whistle to leave the score at 30 – 19 at full time. This wasn’t a vintage performance but again this team showed massive resilience to get back and finish the game strongly despite losing number eight Ciaran Ryan to injury early on. Despite losing back-to-back games against Mallow and Kanturk in January Thurles responded well by garnering 12 points from their remaining three games to see them finish in a comfortable mid table position in the league. 

Thurles lined out as follows: 

Shane Nugent, Jack Kavanagh, James Butler Dan Lanigan Ryan, Peter Kinane, Sam Quinlan, Mark Cummins, Ciaran Ryan, Seamus Holohan, James Maher, Matty Kelly, , Sonny Dwyer, Luke Fogarty, Sean McGrath, Jack Flanagan.

Subs: Ciaran Murphy (for Shane Nugent), Richie Holohan(Jack Kavanagh), Donnacha Ryan (for Dan Lanigan Ryan) Brandon Meaney (for James Butler), Ricardo Prandi (for James Maher), Roy Stanley (for Ciaran Ryan)