Cork Constitution 2nd XV 21 Nenagh Ormond 2nd XV 22

 

Two very good teams took to the field in Cork Constitution’s Temple Hill on Sunday last in the Munster Senior Seconds League Division 1. Nenagh had a dominant scrum which they used to their advantage throughout. With some early field position, Nenagh scored their first try after some great hands from Matt Burke and Jack O Keeffe put Robbie Tynan over in the corner for a 5 nil lead. Shortly afterwards the lead was extended when a second try ensued after a very accurate cross field kick from Joe Gleeson with Alex Moloney doing very well to take it with very little space to work with and touched down in the corner again. Joe Gleeson converted excellently from the touch line for a 12 nil lead. On the 25 minute mark, Nenagh struck again. This try came off the back of hard work from the forwards with great hands again from Jack O Keeffe to Matt Burke who was not going to be stopped from close range. The difficult conversion was missed leaving the score at 17 nil. Cork Con then had their purple patch fighting back well. They first scored a breakaway try with a second following on the stroke of half time after some persistent pressure.  Both were converted. What had looked like being a one sided affair on the score board was now on a knife edge at 17-14 to Nenagh.

Midway through the second half came the score of the game and what would also turn out to be the decisive score. Evan Fitzpatrick picked out Ryan Thompson in space with a cross-field kick. Ryan claimed it excellently and was left with a one on one with the last defender.  An excellent chip over the top was recollected by him to score in the corner. Again, the conversion was narrowly missed but with the lead at 22 14, it would take two scores to turn the game around.  Nenagh defended resolutely to keep Cork Con at bay for the next 15 minutes, but Con were relentless and eventually scored to make it 22 21 with 10 minutes to go.  However, Nenagh showed good character to hold them out over the last few minutes to take the bonus point win.

This result leaves Nenagh top of the table with 4 wins from 4.  Their next outing is at home to Highfield on Sunday, November 24.

Team: 1 Jack O’Keeffe, 2 Jack Devanny, 3 Matthew Burke, 4 Darragh Tucker, 5 Kevin O’Gorman, 6 Craig Hannon, 7 Robbie Tynan, 8 John Brislane, 9 Cian Ryan, 10 Joseph Gleeson, 11 Ryan Thompson, 12 Conor McGrath, 13 Brian O’Rourke, 14 Alex Moloney, 15 Evan Fitzpatrick, 16 Shane Malone, 17 Sean Frawley, 18 Niall O’Gorman, 19 Darragh Townsend, 20 James Meagher, 21 Tristan Madden, 22 Luke Graham.