Thurles travelled to South Limerick for round three of the Munster Junior League to take on Newcastlewest. Thurles were hoping to complete a three in a row against the days opposition in the league, an aspiration that must have seemed very unlikely when the home teams fly half lined up a long distance penalty shot with what was likely to be the last kick of the game with just a minute and half remaining on the clock. 

This game started badly for Thurles, a good clearance kick from the kick off by Fionn Fogarty gave Newcastlewest a lineout at the Thurles 10m line. A good lineout win and two miss passes later the Newcastlewest left winger was sprinting untouched to score Newcastlewest’s first try. 

A good 50/22 kick by Paddy McGrath led to field position for Thurles in the Newcastlewest 22m line. A good lineout win and attacking phases of play brought a high tackle call against NCW. James Maher slotted the resultant penalty kick to leave the score at 5 -3 after 5 mins.

Another sweeping move by Thurles just saw Mark Cummins, on for Dylan Shaughnessy, just denied by a good covering tackle in the corner after Thurles backs worked some space down the right wing. After 20minutes Newcastlewest had good attacking position in Thurles 22, but a great Ciaran Murphy turnover gave Thurles a relieving penalty.

The next score came after some sustained Newcastlewestpressure from a scrum penalty and field position in the Thurles 22, Newcastlewest bounced back down the Thurles blind side and worked an overlap with a long pass putting their winger clear to score in the corner to push the score out to 10 to 3 with 25 minutes on the clock, with the conversion missed from the sideline. 

The Thurles scrum was struggling at this stage but some changes with Jack Kavanagh in for |James butler and Dan Lanigan Ryan coming in for Ciaran Murphy, shored things up. Jock Fogarty came on for with Sam Quinlan moving to second row

Thurles had a late injury during warm up resulting in Ciaran Ryan only being able to participate for a short period prior to 

A great tactical kick by James Maher resulted in a 50/22 for Thurles and a good attacking platform inside the Newcastlewest 22. Thurles attacked off the lineout, sweeping side to side with their phase play, before some hard carrying by the pack close in, resulted in hooker Tom McNamara spinning over from close in for his third try in three games. James Maher added the conversion to level proceedings 10 -10 with half time looming. With time running out Newcastlewest had one more attacking opportunity and Thurles were outsmarted in defence by another long cut out pass to his left from Newcastlewest fly half to his outside backs which put their winger into the Thurles left hand corner for Newcastlewest’s third try The try was well converted to leave the score at 17 -10 in favour of the home side at half time

Newcastlewest started best in the second half, a poor clearance kick on the full by Thurles after 5 minutes of the restart resulted in a Newcastlewest lineout in their own 22m. Some good attacking play by Newcastlewest had the Thurleswide defence struggling again before Sonny Dwyer came up with a good turnover to clear their lines. The respite was short lived and with just 10 minutes elapsed in the second half a late tackle on Newcastlewest scrum half gave the home team a good field position 5m from the Thurles line. Thurles repelled the initial maul attack from the lineout but a few passes and penalty advantages later the Newcastlewest scrumhalf crashed over from short range and appeared to be held up only for the try to be awarded – conversion landed, and Newcastlewest led 24 -10 with 50 minutes gone. To Thurles credit it took just 6 minutes for the visitors to respond. A penalty for a high tackle gave Thurles a penalty which James Maher kicked into the Newcastlewest 22m line. A great lineout win by Sam Quinlan and carry by Jason Theron pushed Thurles close to the opposition’s line. Thurles went through a number of phases winning another penalty for a no arms tackle which resulted in a yellow card for the home team.  Thurles took a tap penalty piling on the pressure on the home side before Jason Theron picked from a ruck and crashed over for Thurles second try. With the conversion missed, this left Thurles trailing 24 – 15with 56 minutes gone. Better was to come for Thurles when just three minutes later when attacking from their own half through backs and forwards. James O’Mara and James Devanney made good ground into the Newcastlewest half before Sonny Dwyer with yet another barrelling run made it over the Newcastlewest line to reduce the deficit further, James Maher added the conversion to leave the score at 24 – 22. The game ebbed and flowed for the next 15 minutes of play until the home team, after some sustained pressure, won a penalty for a late tackle in easy kicking range of the Thurles posts. Munster Junior out half Shane Airey easily converted the chance to push out the score to 27 – 22 in favour of thehome team with 5 minutes plus injury time to go. Thurles were up against it with time running out, and to furthercompound their predicament they conceded a late penalty straight in front of the posts on the halfway line. Newcastlewest lined up the kick with just a minute and half on the referee’s watch. The shot was well struck but dropped under the bar, leaving a chink of light for Thurles for redemption in this game. Sonny Dwyer caught the kick and launched himself back at the onrushing Newcastlewest team. Thurles went from phase-to-phase punching holes through backs and forwards until they got to within 10m of the Newcastlewest line. The home team, desperate to maintain their line infringed twice giving Thurles two penalty advantages. Thurles drove hard through the pack going close a number of times – the chance seemed to have gone when Sam Quinlan was driven further back before his pack regrouped,retained possession and surged for the line again, for Captain Fantastic, Sonny Dwyer, to burrow in for the crucial score close to the Newcastlewest posts. James Maher added the two points to complete the larceny. 

This was an immense squad performance with early injurysetbacks resulting in the veteran wing forward Mark Cummins filling in on the wing for most of the game. Young guns Evan Ryan and Fionn Fogarty are very quickly adapting to the senior game and the pack in general were excellent to a man. Some shaky scrummaging was quickly problem solved, and the lineout was again a real weapon with Thurles winning a hundred per cent of their own ball and in addition managing to pinch a couple of Newcastlewest lineouts. And despitesome shaky early defence the Thurles backline got to grips with their opposition and edged the contest in the end. 

James Butler, Tom McNamara, John Shaw, Stephen Kirwan,Jason Theron, Ciaran Murphy, Evan Ryan, Sam Quinlan, Fionn Fogarty, James Maher, Dylan Shaughnessy, SonnyDwyer, James O’Mara, James Devanney, Paddy McGrath,

Subs: Shane Nugent (for Tom McNamara) , Jack Kavanagh(for James Butler), Ciaran Ryan, Dan Lanigan Ryan(for Ciaran Murphy), Mark Cummins(for Dylan Shaughnessy), Sean Lloyd, Jock Fogarty (for Evan Ryan)