Thurles RFC vs. Cobh Pirates RFC – Munster Junior Clubs Challenge Shield

Thurles RFC 14 – 3 Cobh Pirates RFC

Thurles continued their great run of victories on Sunday last, as they welcomed Cobh Pirates to Loughtagalla for the highly anticipated Semi Final of the Munster Junior Challenge Shield. Thurles were looking to go one step further this year having lost out to Bandon with the last kick of the game at the same stage last season.

Cobh would have travelled to the Premier County full of confidence having defeated this Thurles side 17-12 in Cork on the opening day of season in their League encounter and are now currently sitting in second place behind Abbeyfeale.

Thurles kicked off the game and from the off showed their intent as Paddy Phelan secured the ball with his fellow forwards following up in support to set the home side up for their first attack of the day. Thurles put together a number of phases before Cobh forced a turnover and with the aid of wind cleared their lines to ease the pressure and bring play inside the Thurles half.

Cobh had a solid 10 minute spell where they did everything to try and break the Thurles line but they were denied time and time again by an excellent black wall of defence. Cobh didn’t leave empty handed as their full back slotted over a penalty to open the scoring as a Thurles player had been penalised for not releasing in the tackle, 0-3.

Thurles kicked off again but this time the kick went astray as it narrowly went out on the full with a scrum being awarded to the away side on the half way line. It was from this point that the real marker was set down the Thurles pack, in particular the front row of Ger McCormack, Dave Kelly and Colm Skehan who domnitaed the scrums all day. Thurles took this scrum against the head as scrum half Nicky Irwin combined with his winger to set up an attack down the right hand side of the field.

Thurles continued to make great headway down the field with Moloney & Lanigan-Ryan combining well in the centre along with Skehan & Joey Kelly making good line breaks to bring play inside the Cobh 22. Thurles were patient in attack and eventually crossed the white wash as scrum half Irwin made a break & passed to his out half, Aidan Dwyer who cut back against the Cobh defence to touchdown left of the posts, he added the extras himself for the maximum, 7-3.

With 10 minutes left until the break Thurles were dominating, Peter Coman made excellent breaks on either side of the field and was unlucky not to get the right bounce of the ball on one he kicked in behind, which would have set him away, brothers Phil & Dave Kelly were putting in a mountain of work & Dave himself was unlucky also not to touchdown himself as white line fever got the better of the prop as he stumbled just shy of the line and was unfortunate to be held up as he went to touchdown.

From the resultant scrum, the Cobh men were struggling to cope with the power of the Thurles front row and just as you felt a penalty try was on the cards, the third Kelly brother and Number 8, Joey touched down out wide following a scramble off the back of the scrum, which was just reward for the effort the pack had put in, Dwyer added the extras again to bring an end to the half with a 14-3 scoreline in favour of Thurles.

The second half commenced and somehow managed to remain scoreless throughout, Thurles were completely on top barring a 5 minute spell produced by Cobh in the last quarter of the game. The Tipp men spent the vast majority of the second half in the Cobh end of the field and managed to get over the line on a number of occasions, and were unlucky not to put more scores on the board.

Cobh had a brief period of possession during the second half where they threw the kitchen sink at Thurles, but they had no joy as every attack saw them lose yards, with one hit in particular from Shane Moloney wowing the crowd in attendance, as he executed a perfectly timed tackle, cutting his opposite number in half at the same time, the tackled player somehow attempted to have a second bite at the cherry but at this stage, the Thurles back up came rowing in and drove the Cobh man 15 yards back towards his own half.

Cheer of the day came as Ciaran Ryan was withdrawn with 10 minutes to go for Matthew Booth, a second consecutive Man of the Match performance from the Drom & Inch man was met with great applause & appreciation by the Loughtagalla crowd as Ryan made his way to the sideline. Ciaran is having a fantastic season in his first full season on the First XV, his transition from Centre to Flanker has been a great asset to the team this year.

Following on from this win, the Thurles First XV now look forward to the Final of the Munster Junior Challenge Shield in the New Year, where they will face either Mallow or Abbeyfeale whose Semi Final clash fell foul to the weather at the weekend.

The Thurles management will have been delighted with the result and the performances of recent months, the team now find themselves well equipped for a promotion challenge for the second half of the season and will be looking for continued success in the Cup competitions.

We would like to thank everyone who turned out to support the team at Loughtagalla on Sunday, the large attendance was greatly appreciated by the players and management, and it was great to see a good turnout stick around after the game to watch the Munster game in the Clubhouse on the big screen.

We will be hosting our annual Charity Game on St. Stephens Day at 2.30pm, this is always an enjoyable occasion and one where it is always good to see some old faces around the Club as they visit Thurles at Christmas time, all are invited to bring family members and friends to enjoy a few sociables and rugby.

Thurles Scorers: Joey Kelly (1 Try) & Aidan Dwyer (1 Try, 2 Conversions).

Thurles Squad vs Cobh: 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. Charlie Langley 18. Matthew Booth 19. Luke Kelly 20. Eoghan O’Dwyer.