Thurles :10

Cashel:  15

Wasted Chances cost Thurles place in Mansergh Final.

Thurles played their old rivals Cashel for a place in the Mansergh cup final at home last Sunday, and left the field with thoughts of what could have been after a frustrating game of missed chances.

The 5 personnel changes and 8 positional changes from last week’s win over Clanwilliam wreaked havoc with any continuity on what had been a good performance. Quite a few of the players were ring rusty which showed in the first few minutes they went a try down and did not get into the game for another twenty minutes when Mark Cummins finished off a good drive. Then the early season issue of rustiness crept in when two good try scoring chances were butchered by over thinking what had to be done rather than keeping it simple and doing the basics right. James Maher had a day to forget with the kicking tee in the absence of Paddy McGrath, which was unfortunate for James as he had a good display at outhalf keeping the Cashel defence on the back foot all game.        

Cashel extended their lead with a penalty early in the second half and after a lot of huffing and puffing Mark Cummins got in for another try to give Thurles the lead with 10 minutes to go.

Cashel exerted pressure and after a series of attacks on the Thurles line, Thurles were reduced to 14 when Seamie Houlihan got the bin for a penalty. With the superior numbers Cashel got in for a converted try with a minute to go.

Thurles can be proud of the performance at times  but bitterly disappointed that they left this one behind them.

Team: Dylan Shaughnessy, Luke Fogarty, Cathal Hayes, Owen Byrne, Sonny Dwyer, James Maher, Seamus Houlihan, Jack Kavanagh, Shane Nugent, John Shaw, Luke Kelly, Colin Nolan, Peter Kinnane,           Mark Cummins, Rob O’Donovan. Subs, Ger McCormack, Daragh Sweeney, Andrew Bourke, Daniel Lee, Brian O’Connell, James Devaney, Matthew Kelly, Donnacha Ryan.  

--