Thurles RFC vs. Mallow RFC – Munster Junior League

Thurles RFC 43 – 14 Mallow RFC

The Thurles First XV welcomed Mallow RFC to Loughtagalla on Sunday afternoon last on what was a calm and perfect day for rugby following on from Storm Desmond which had hit the country Friday and Saturday, this would be First XV last League game before the Christmas break before they take on Cobh at home on 20th December in the semi-final of the Munster Junior Challenge Shield.

Mallow arrived in Thurles looking for their first win of the season, having beaten the Tipp men in the reverse fixture last season, Mallow would have travelled with a degree of confidence hoping to cause an upset against a Thurles side who left Tralee with a winning bonus point the previous weekend.

The first quarter of this game was end to end with some great breaks and equally good tackles being made by both sides. Mallow were taking the game to the home side but were driven back time and time again by a very disciplined Thurles defence with Paddy Phelan, Dave Kelly and Ciaran Ryan impressing in particular.

After this wave of attack Thurles turned the ball over and through great work from Joey Kelly and Shane Moloney (K), Thurles made their way up the field and into the opposition 22. After a number of failed attempts at the line, Thurles eventually opened the scoring with Colm Skehan powering his way over from the base of a ruck, Aidan Dwyer added the conversion for the maximum, 7-0.

Despite taking the lead, Thurles weren’t living up the performances we had become accustomed to over the past couple of months, with a lot of uncharacteristic errors and poor decisions being made across the board. From the restart, Thurles made their way up the field again but a knock on ended any further progress being made, this handed the initiative to Mallow who were looking to take advantage of an extra man following a sin binning on the Thurles side.

Mallow made their way slowly up the field as the Thurles defence were standing tall once again with Larry O’Gorman, Ger McCormack and Phil Kelly to the fore. Mallow continued to throw the kitchen sink at Thurles and eventually took advantage of the extra man when their Kiwi outhalf spotted space out wide and threw an excellent pass to send their centre over for their opening score of the game which they also converted to bring an end to the first half with the scores level at 7-7.

At the half time whistle, the crowd in attendance at Loughtagalla may have been biting their nails as to the outcome of this League game but 5 minutes after kicking off the second half these worries would have disappeared as Thurles turned on the style with Man of the Match, Ciaran Ryan, first of all winning the turnover from the kick off and seconds later making the break and giving the pass to send Shane Moloney (K) in under the posts to put Thurles back in the driving seat, our other Shane Moloney (H) added the extras for a 14-7 scoreline.

From the restart, Thurles immediately went on the attack again, with a clearance kick from Dwyer hitting touch just outside the Mallow 22. Thurles managed to disrupt the Mallow lineout with Larry O’Gorman stealing and powering forward and presenting ball for scrum half Irwin to set the backs away, Shane Moloney found space through the centre and came close to adding his second, Dwyer fed ball to his forwards with McCormack and Skehan coming close before Luke Kelly crashed through would be tacklers to score his first ever try at this level on his return from injury following his introduction late in the first half, the conversion was added by Dwyer for 21-7.

Thurles were rolling now and were playing like the side we have become accustomed over the past number of months, it is a joy to watch with great interplay between backs and forwards both in attack and defence. Thurles soaked up more pressure before forcing another turnover and Ciaran Ryan went on another one of his runs, this time being stopped before being able to give the pass away, the forwards, through Dave Kelly, Skehan and help from winger, Adrian Bourke brought Thurles inide the Mallow 22 again before Irwin set the backs off again, the ball reached Shane Lanigan-Ryan who despite having numbers and space outside, decided to take matters into his own hands and took the more difficult route of beating 3 men before touching down and securing Thurles their second bonus point in as many weeks, Dwyer added the conversion for a 28-7 scoreline.

Mallow continued to battle despite the game creeping away from them, their out half continued to pull their strings and he sent their outside centre through a rare gap in the Thurles defence following a ten minute spell trying to break down the home defence, the extras were added to bring the score to 28-14.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, Thurles brought an end to Mallow’ purple patch when Dwyer sent over a penalty to push out the score to 31-14. Mallow managed to win the restarted with a good chase, but when the ball reached the left wing, Thurles managed to turnover once again through great work from the backs and forwards in defence, from the turnover, there was a number of offloads in tight before Nicky Irwin found space and sprinted half the length of the field and touched down out wide just beating the cover to the line, Dwyer added the conversion from the corner to extend the lead to 38-14.

Thurles were going from strength to strength and spent the final five mintues on the attack inside the Mallow 22, Jason O’Mahony, Dwayne Stanley and Mark Cummins who had impressed for the seconds the previous day before got their reward with a run in the final quarter, all impressing again for a second day in a row and adding to the performance of those they replaced. Thurles secured their own lineout on the left hand side and after a number of phases which saw play move in closer the posts, the ball went to the backs, where Dwyer sliced open the Mallow defence with a pass to winger Peter Coman who touched down in the right corner to continue his excellent form in recent weeks, Dwyer’s conversion from the corner just drifted shy of the post to bring an end to his 100% record on the day and also brought and end to the game shortly after.

After a sluggish first half, the Thurles management will be delighted with how the team responded in the second half, running in 5 excellent second half tries against a Mallow side who will no doubt cause trouble to a lot of teams in the New Year as they look to move up the table.

Numbers for both Firsts and Seconds have been excellent for the past number of weeks and we hope to see this continue with only two weeks to the Christmas break, the rewards of the high numbers training in the past month or more have been evident in the excellent performance of both the First and Second XV in recent weeks, long may this continue.

Training takes place on Tuesday and Friday this week for the First and Second XV, on the field and ready to go for 7.30pm, New Players always welcome.

Our next and final fixture of 2015 takes place at home in the Semi Final of the Munster Junior Challenge Shield against Cobh, who currently join us level on points in second place in the League, on Sunday 20th December 2.30pm, all support would be greatly appreciated for this important game as it is our last League Game before Christmas, this will be a massive game for us as we look to secure our first of hopefully many finals in 2016.
Thurles Scorers: Colm Skehan, Shane Moloney (K), Luke Kelly, Shane Lanigan-Ryan, Nicky Irwin and Peter Coman (1 Try Each), Shane Moloney (B) (1 Conversion), Aidan Dwyer (4 Conversions, 1 Penalty).

Thurles Squad vs Mallow: 1. Ger McCormack 2. Dave Kelly 3. Colm Skehan (Capt.) 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 (Killinan) 13. Shane Lanigan-Ryan 14. Adrian Bourke 15. Shane Moloney (Holycross) 16 Shane Nugent 17. Jason O’Mahony 18. Dwayne Stanley 19. Luke Kelly 20. Mark Cummins.