Thurles RFC vs. Presentation RFC – Munster Junior League

Thurles RFC 36 – 0 Presentation RFC

The Thurles First XV travelled to Limerick on Sunday last, to take on a Presentation side who had been flying high in the League up until recent weeks. Thurles were looking to build on their previous win against Ballincollig where thye ran out 36-0 winners at home. With Abbeyfeale failing to handle the pressure of their unbeaten League run last week, losing their first game in the competition to second place Cobh, it now gives Thurles only a slim chance of promotion with the Tipperary side now hoping to continue their excellent winning streak and that those above them slip up.

Thurles kicked off proceedings knowing that they would be up against it, Presentation were a tough team and were like strong promotion contenders for most of this season. Thurles opened the scoring on the 20 minute mark via the boot of John Lillis following a dangerous two-footed lunge by a Pres player which saw him sin binned for the same offence, within 10 minutes, Tommy Connolly crossed in the corner following an excellently worked move from the back of the scrum to push out the score to 0-8, with the difficult conversion narrowly shading the posts.

Thurles continued to keep the pressure on coming up to half time with Paddy Phelan, Aidan Dwyer & Peter Coman coming close on separate occasions only to be denied by some excellent last second scrambling by the home side to prevent the scores, the sides went in 0-8 at half time to Thurles.

The second half kicked off with Thurles receiving the ball and they picked up where they left off in the first half, pressing well inside the Pres half. The home side were putting up great resistance until scrum half Nicky Irwin spotted a defender sleeping around the edges, he sniped through for his 1st try of the game diving in under the posts, Lillis added the extras to push out the score to 15-0, minutes later Irwin repeated the trick following some great work from Colm Skehan & Joey Kelly, Lillis again added the convert to put some distance between the sides, 22-0.

With 20 minutes remaining on the clock, Thurles pushed through the gears and showed why they are near the summit of the League, with the front row of McCormack, Kelly & Skehan dominant once again throughout, it created a great platform as Thurles secured all their own ball and turned over a good percentage of scrums against the head. It was following a few phases after one of these scrums that Thurles went in search of the bonus point, Ciaran Ryan, now in at number 8 following Joey Kelly’s switch to the centre, having a go for the line before scrum half Irwin found Ger McCormack coming like a steam train to power through the home defence to finish what was a try similar to Sean Cronin’s try for Ireland the previous day, Lillis added the extras for the full complement, 0-29.

In the final 10 minutes, John Lillis crossed and converted his own try before a piece of magic by substitute scrum half, James Ryan, with a Brian O’Driscoll like pass around the back of the defender saw Peter Coman gather out wide and race in under the posts with Aidan Dwyer splitting the posts in the last act of the game with a final score of 0-43 to the Thurles men that keeps a bit of pressure on those holding the top two positions in the League.

Thurles have 2 games left in the Munster Junior League and the last home game takes place this coming Sunday at Loughtagalla against Charleville at 2.30pm. With this being our last home game, the players, management and committee would appreciate a huge turnout to cheer on the lads following a tough but excellent season with the team already exceeding last year’s points total with 2 games still to play. Many thanks to all those who travelled down to Limerick on Sunday to support the team, it was much appreciated by the players & management.

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