Thurles RFC vs. Ballincollig RFC – Munster Junior League

Thurles RFC 36 – 0 Ballincollig RFC

The Thurles First XV returned to League action on Sunday last following up on their spirited display against Young Munster in the Junior Cup the previous week. This was the team’s fourth last game of a League campaign which is set to go down to the wire in the fight for the final promotion spot with Cobh as Abbeyfeale seem to have the title within their grasp with the Limerick side only having two games left following last weekend’s action and they remain unbeaten.

Thurles welcomed Ballincollig to Loughtagalla with the Cork side full of confidence following a string of impressive displays against teams in the top half of the table in recent weeks. Thurles were looking to get back on track following the Junior Cup exit and extend their unbeaten run at home in the League which has been intact for over two years at this stage.

The home side kicked off and showed great hunger early on with Ciaran Ryan, Phil Kelly & Luke Kelly impressing around the breakdown, knocking the Cork men back at every opportunity. Within the opening quarter, Thurles found themselves with a lot more time on the ball than their previous outing which led to players taking too much out of possession and getting found out when the time came to making a decision on whether to pass or go to ground.

It’s fair to that despite this sloppiness, Thurles were still the dominant side and spent the majority of the opening quarter inside the Ballincollig half of the field. The pressure eventually told as Nicky Irwin flew threw a gap created by Joey Kelly and dived in under the posts to open the scoring, Aidan Dwyer added the extras for the full complement and a deserved lead, 7-0.

As the game restarted, Thurles made their way back up the field through strong running from Colm Skehan, Peter Coman & Shane Moloney and found themselves just outside the away sides 22 once again. The front row of Skehan, Dave Kelly & Ger McCormack continued their excellent season, as they dominated proceedings from start to finish, to create excellent platforms for attacks. Thurles secured their own possession from the scrum and as the ball reached the backs, Aidan Dwyer broke through the cover before excellently offloading to the oncoming Paddy Phelan in support, Dwyer added the extras again to increase the lead to 14-0.

Ballincollig restarted again and to their credit didn’t let the heads drop following the early scores against them, they battled hard during a ten minute period but got no change from an excellent Thurles defence, the ball was eventually turned over by some excellent work by the forwards and John Lillis sent an excellent relieving kick down well inside the Ballincollig half.

Thurles managed to steal the resultant lineout from the Cork side through excellent work from the forwards, which gave Eoghan O’Dwyer & Adrian Bourke more opportunities to torment the Ballincollig defence as the ball went wide. After some more great movement in the backline, Nicky Irwin once again took advantage as the away defence were stuck on their heels as he raced over for his second of the day, with the conversion missed, the sides went in at half time with the score reading 19-0.

The second half kicked off and Ballincollig enjoyed a period of dominance during the first quarter but again struggled to get anything from the Thurles defence as the home side answered any questions asked of them. Thurles turned on the style for the remaining 20 mintues with some great passages of play between the backs and forwards, Peter Coman scored and excellent team try as he crashed over in the left hand corner facing the clubhouse, minutes later Nicky Irwin completed his hat-trick after great combination of play off the back of the scrum and to bring an end to proceedings another fine team try saw the half backs, Irwin & Dwyer combine with replacements Larry O’Gorman and Shane Lanigan-Ryan for an excellently worked move through the hands which was finished off on the right side of the field, Lillis added the extras to bring the final score to 36-0 to Thurles and the bonus point secured.

This was an important win for Thurles in their push for promototion, Thurles have a game in hand on the teams ahead of them and with the top two of Abbeyfeale and Cobh facing off in Cork next weekend, it will be extra important that Thurles head to Newport and do their bit to keep the momentum going, all going well weather wise, this game will go ahead at Newports home ground but if the recent adverse conditions continue, this game may be moved to the 4G pitch in UL, keep an eye on Facebook for any updates, this game is scheduled for 2.30pm.

The players and management would like to extend its thanks to all those who turned up to support the team on Sunday, we hope to see everyone again this Sunday as we make the trip to Newport, with only 3 league games left in the season all support as always is greatly appreciated.

Thurles Scorers: Nicky Irwin (3 Tries), Paddy Phelan, Peter Coman & Shane Lanigan-Ryan (1 Try Each), Aidan Dwyer (2 Conversions), John Lillis (1 Conversion).
Thurles Squad vs Ballincollig: 1. Ger McCormack 2. Dave Kelly 3. Colm Skehan 4. Phil Kelly 5. Luke Kelly 6. Ciaran Ryan 7. Paddy Phelan 8. Joey Kelly 9. Nicky Irwin 10. John Lillis 11. Peter Coman 12. Shane Moloney 13. Aidan Dwyer 14. Adrian Bourke 15. Eoghan O’Dwyer (Capt.) 16. Shane Nugent 17. Rory O’Dwyer 18. Dwayne Stanley 19. Larry O’Gorman 20. Shane Lanigan