Cork Con 37 Nenagh 2nd XV 13

 

Nenagh 2nds travelled to Temple Hill to take on Cork Con in the semi-final of the Munster Senior League Division 1.  With the 1st XV promoted to Division 1 at the end of last season, it also meant our 2nd XV would play against the other division 1 clubs in the Senior Seconds league.  The fact that Nenagh made it to the semi final is a tribute to the team themselves after such a big step up in opposition.

 

While the scoreline would suggest Cork Con were comfortable winners, this game was much closer as a contest for the first hour.  Nenagh started the game very well with the pack showing some dominance over their opposition.  A number of big carries sucked in the Con defence allowing space for the impressive Brian O’Rourke to continue his try scoring exploits of recent times scoring in the right corner.  Evan Fitzpatrick was just off with the difficult conversion.  Nenagh continued to dominate for long periods of the half and added a second try in similar circumstances to the first, this time Evan Fitzpatrick took the honours to give Nenagh a 10-0 lead.  Con finally started to put some phases together and a dangerous tackle by David Corcoran saw him see yellow and Cork Con take the three points for a 10-3 scoreline.  Minutes later the extra space was exploited to allow Con’s Bruce Matthews in under the posts for a score and simple conversion to tie the game at 10 a piece.  Nenagh had the last say of the half when an offside on the edge of the 22 allowed them to kick a penalty giving them a 13-10 half time lead.

 

The second half started very scrappily with a lot of handling errors by both side.  While Nenagh tried to get into Con’s half, they couldn’t hold on to the ball and Con regularly cleared their lines with the aid of the strong breeze they were now playing with.  This game turned in the 55 to 60 minute period when two breakaway tries by Con gave them a 22-13 lead.  The first of these was an excellent length of the field score, of the back of a Nenagh fumble in the Con 222, with backs and forwards offloading excellently to keep the ball alive and score an outstanding try in the left corner.  Nenagh tried valiantly but Con were not to be thwarted.  They ran in three further tries in the last few minutes to give them a deserved if somewhat distorted win.

 

Nenagh 2nds next turn to the Munster Junior Cup hoping for a good extended run in this years competition.  First up will be Clonakilty at home next Sunday, currently scheduled for 2pm.  We look forward to seeing a good turn out to support these hard working players.

 

Team: 1 Ivan Struzia, 2 Shane Malone, 3 Paidi Bourke, 4 Craig Hannon, 5 Kevin O’Gorman (c), 6 Robert Buckley, 7 Evan Murphy, 8 John Brislane, 9 David Corcoran, 10 Evan Fitzpatrick, 11 Ryan Thompson, 12 Brian O’Rourke, 13 Conor McGrath, 14 Alex Moloney, 15 Joseph Gleeson, 16 Jack Devanny, 17 Jack Butler, 18 Darragh Tucker, 19 James Meagher, 20 Luke Graham, 21 Sean Tormey.