Thurles travelled to North Cork for round 1 of the Munster Junior league on Sunday last looking to get the new season off to a winning start. This was not the easiest opening fixture against a very competitive Kanturk side who finished a couple of places above Thurles in last year’s league but Thurles with some new blood, a new coaching team ensconced and a lot of hard work done in pre-season would have been reasonably optimistic for a positive result here. 

Thurles kicked off this game and the game was played at a fast pace for the opening five minutes before Thurles faced their first challenge in losing the ever-present Seamie Houlihan at scrum half to a nasty leg injury making his usual fearless tackle on a big Kanturk forward and forcing some early reshuffling in the backline with just a 6 -2 split on the bench, and resulted in young Fionn Fogarty moving into fly half and James Maher taking over at scrum half. Kanturk were first to draw blood winning a penalty just inside the Thurles 10 metre line and converting to open the scoring 3 – 0 after 10 minutes. A good Kanturk attack which saw them easily outsmart the Thurles midfield defence saw them break deep into the Thurles half before a forward pass halted their progress, but the ease with which Kanturk by passed the Thurles defence was a portent of things to come. Thurles from the ensuing scrum bravely moved the ball from deep in their own 22 with Sonny Dwyer who offloaded to Luke Fogartywho in turn found Paddy Dwyer deep in his own half before a slaloming 70m run saw him evade all would be tacklers for a brilliant individual score under the Kanturk posts. Converted by James Maher to leave Thurles ahead 7 – 3. Just a minute later Kanturk landed a penalty kick from distance again to pull the score back to 7 – 6 after 18 minutes. Thurles stretched their lead when James Devanney put Evan Ryan, in his league debut, racing down the blind side before he was tackled a few metres of the line – offloading to Dylan Shaughnessy who again made ground to within a couple of metres – Thurles recycled the ruck quickly for Tom McNamara to spin over from short range. James Maher landed a great conversion to push Thurles out to 14 – 6 with 27 minutes elapsed. Thurles arguably had their best team score after 35 minutes, when a great initial break down the left wing by James Devanney saw him held up 10m out before offloading to Dylan Shaughnessy who fly kicked the ball onwards before gathering and getting dragged down just shy of the line, a good recycle at the ruck saw Thurles debutante Jason Theron spin a great pass to Sonny Dwyer who put his midfield partner Luke Fogartyaway for Thurles third try, scoring 10m left of the Kanturk posts. Thurles failed to convert leaving the score at 19 -6 with half time approaching.  Kanturk put the restart out on the full, giving a scrum back to Thurles, but some dissension from the Kanturk fly half saw him see yellow and Thurles get a penalty from halfway. Thurles attacked well from eth lineout but a failure to clear out a rick after a good Luke Fogarty half break, which resulted in him having to leave the field with a leg injury, gave Kanturk a penalty and a good kick to get field position. Ciaran Murphy came on at wing forward and proceeded to have one of the more prominent performances on the day for Thurles in the backrow, with Sonny Dwyer reverting to centre in a further reshuffling of the backline. From the ensuing lineout a depleted Kanturk backline knifed through the Thurles midfield, with  Munster junior centre Brian O’Sullivan easily beating Thurles full back Paddy McGrath to dot down under the post just on the stroke of half time and with conversion, push the score to 19 – 13 at half time. With a man still in the bin things were to get worse for Thurles, at the second half restart, Thurles failed to dela with the kick off and Kanturk recovered the ball and proceeded to punish Thurles ruthlessly. Going side to side before fashioning a try wide on the left. Their yellow carded fly half now restored to the pitch, landed the conversion into a stiff breeze to push the score out to 20 – 19. To compound Thurles pressure and misery a poor restart went out on the full – in the ensuing play Thurles captain Sonny Dwyer received a card for a cynical tackle in a clearly offside position. Thurles hung on until restored to their full compliment a turnover and stolen lineout by Sam Quinlan deep in Thurles territory just about keeping the home team from adding to their score. Thurles rotated their bench Jack Kavanagh for John Shaw 45 mins and several front changes as the game went into a bot of stalemate. The decisive score and phase of the game came after 55 mins. With 15 mins left Thurles won a clean lineout inside their 22which was spilled by James Maher at scrum half and led to a Kanturk scrum 10 metres out, at the time it felt like a pivotal moment in the game, and so it transpired with the home team keeping their composure to sweep left and right before fashioning an easy overlap on the Thurles right, to score their third try, the conversion landed by their out half was never in doubt, as he gave an exhibition of placed ball kicking with 5 from 5 on the day for the  home team despite spending 10 minutes of the game in the sin bin. This pushed the game to a two-score game and given how tight the second half had been with sustained pressure and chances at a premium it looked to be the decisive score of the game, and so it proved to be. Thurles struggled to get past 5 or 6 phases at any stage in the closing stages. This was due to a struggling scrum where three penalties were conceded in the closing quarter and similarnumber of turnovers where Thurles failed to resource rucksand get their shape in their phase play. Some critical lineout malfunctions in the red zone also a critical factor with three crooked throw calls and one overthrow undermining good field position. Thurles carried hard but could not break down a resolute Kanturk defence and failed to get their strike runners away in space. Thurles did have a late opportunity to garner a bonus point with late long-distance penalty shot by the excellent Fionn Fogarty dropping short, perhaps a kick to the corner and going for the extra try and losing bonus point may have been a better call, but given the fragility of the lineout in the closing stages. Evan Ryan and Fionn Fogarty had fine games given their tender years as did as did Luke Fogarty until his premature departure. Sam Quinlan and Jason Theron in second row and Ciaran Ryan and Ciaran Murphy in the backrow had big contributions. A lengthening injury list in the backline will be of concern with a tough home game against Mallow at home next week. 

John Shaw, Tom McNamara, Steve Kirwan, Sam Quinlan,Jason Theron, Evan Ryan, Sonny Dwyer, Ciaran Ryan, Seamus Holahan, James Maher, Luke Fogarty, Fionn Fogarty, James O’Mara, James Devanney, Paddy McGrath,

Subs: Shane Nugent (for Tom McNamara)Ciaran Murphy (for Luke Fogarty), James Butler (for Steven Kirwan), (for John Shaw), Oisin O’Gorman, Dylan Shaughnessy, Ridas Jablonskais, Dylan Shaughnessy(for Seamie Houlihan, Luke Molumby (for Dylan Shaughnessy).