Munster Junior League Div 1

Clonakilty 21. Thurles   7

Contradictory to the photo, there was no crock of gold at the end of the rainbow for Thurles

Thurles suffered a third league defeat  after traveling to West Cork on Sunday last, but after a lot of hard work, for the first time in the league campaign this season, failed to come away with some valuable points

The earlier problems of not beating teams that they are better than, surfaced again and the lack of games for the last two weeks didn’t help.

 Thurles got off to a good start with Matthew Kelly on the wing  for the  first time this season, touched down for a try after some good forward play and Paddy McGrath added the conversion, it looked like it was to be a good afternoon but slack defending and hard luck allowed Clonakilty in for a try and a penalty to go 10:7 up, more hardship followed with  another try and two more penalties extended their lead. Eoghan O’Dwyer got over the line in the second half but was held up and he failed to ground the ball.  While the results are not going their way the performance at times was excellent but the precision that was there  with the all beating team of last season is simmering below the surface and is waiting to be exposed.

There will be an excellent chance for this next Sunday when Mallow visit Thurles for a double header with league points and the first round of the Munster Junior Clubs Challenge Cup up for grabs, Thurles have a proud history in this tournament and its great to be back in this competition again,

   Teams: Paddy McGrath, Matthew Kelly, James Devaney, Owen Byrne, Eoghan O’Dwyer, James Maher, Seamie Houlihan , John Shaw, Shane Nugent, Jack Kavanagh, Peter Kinnane, Luke Kelly C , Sonny Dwyer. Mark Cummins, Sam Quinlan. Subs Dan Lee, Andrew Bourke,, Ciaran Ryan , Donnacha Ryan., Darragh Sweeney. Ger McCormack.

The Club extends Sympathy’s to The Coman family of Moycarkey on the death of John. John was a former  player and was Club Treasurer and Committee member for years, may he rest in peace.