Friday February 21st
Munster Senior Cup semi-final
Venue: Tom Clifford Park
Young Munster 31 Nenagh 32
Nenagh scorers:
Tries: Davy Gleeson, Rob Buckley, Conor O’Shaughnessy, Josh Rowland.
Conor McMahon 2 x Penalties and 3 x Conversions
Young Munster scorers:
Tries: Aaron Roulston, Bailey Faloon, Oisin Pepper, Ihechi Oji.
Julian Lesczynski 3 x Penalties and 1 x Conversions.
Referee: Paudie Sheehan
Report by Mike McMahon
Nenagh Ormond secured a dramatic late victory to stun home favourites Young Munster in a highly entertaining Munster Senior Challenge Cup semi-final played in front of a large crowd at Tom Clifford Park last Friday night.
The Limerick side have had a strong hold on this competition in recent times, winning three titles in a row culminating in a 27-24 win over Nenagh Ormond in 2023. That was the Tipperary side’s first ever appearance in the final but having already beaten All Ireland League champions Cork Constitution earlier in the competition, they had genuine hopes of a second final appearance in 3 years.
Conditions were excellent under the Friday night floodlights and a large crowd travelled to Greenfields anticipating a closely fought contest between these two sides. They were not disappointed.
It was Nenagh who got off to a fast start, putting pressure on the home defence and forcing a turnover close to the line. Playing the advantage, Nenagh showed superb handing to send right winger Davy Gleeson through a gap for the game’s opening score, converted by centre Conor McMahon
Stunned into a response, Young Munster exerted their superior physicality from the restart and threatened to breech the Nenagh defence on a number of occasions. Eventually this pressure gave rise to a scrum penalty from which out-half Julian Lesczynski opened his side’s account.
The Nenagh response was instant as flanker Rob Buckley made an excellent steal on the home 22 to set up good position for his side. A couple of phases later, Buckley was again on hand to pick up a Jake O’Kelly offload and power his way over under the posts. An early 14-3 lead therefore for Nenagh and the home supporters knew that their side had a game on their hands.
With a slight breeze at their backs, Young Munster dominated territory for much of the first half and a second successful Lesczynski penalty pulled the score back to 14-6. They closed the gap further at the end of the first quarter when they drove over for their first try through a powerful lineout maul.
Young Munster were starting to dominate the physical exchanges and looked to be going over for another try shortly afterwards but the ball was held up over the line on this occasion. Unfortunately for the home team, the goal line restart was fumbled giving Nenagh a scrum on their own 10 metre line.
From the resultant scrum, out half Ben Pope delivered a beautiful cross-field kick into the arms of winger Conor O’Shaughnessy, who sent flying full back Josh Rowland racing up the left touchline. Rowland was finally tackled on the opposition 22 but not before offloading to O’Shaughnessy in support for a sensational score in the corner. The difficult conversion came back off the cross-bar but Nenagh were once again 6 points in front.
The remainder of the first period was dominated by the home side as they kept Nenagh pinned in their own half and forced a series of penalties which ultimately resulted in a yellow card for winger Gleeson.
Young Munster went over for their second try following a powerful series of picks and drives on 35 minutes and then took the lead just before half time when winger Oisin Pepper won the race to dot down from a clever kick through by Lesczynski. With both tries going unconverted, the home side took a 23-19 lead into the second half but with the benefit of the breeze yet to come, the visitors still had high hopes of causing an upset.
The second half was a much tighter affair as Nenagh managed to keep Young Munster at bay through kicking long and forcing them to attack from deep. Even though they were under pressure from the home side’s sheer physicality, particularly at scrum time, Nenagh were still taking the fight to the “Cookies” and attacking out wide at every opportunity. They came close to a fourth try 10 minutes into the half when Young Munster full back Gilvarry just beat centre Angus Blackmore to touch down in goal.
On 55 minutes, another precise cross-field kick from Pope found Gleeson on the right and although he was tackled, he kept his feet long enough to find Rowland in support and he rounded the defence to finish brilliantly. A superb touchline conversion from McMahon gave Nenagh a 26-23 lead which they held into the final quarter.
With 10 minutes remaining, the pendulum swung back in favour of Young Munster once again as they created space down the left for winger Ihechi Oji to power over in the corner. With the difficult conversion falling short, the home side now held a slender 2 point lead as the game approached its nerve-jangling finale.
Nenagh attacked in search of a winning score and won a penalty for a dangerous tackle on replacement Nicky Irwin, which also earned a yellow card for Young Munster’s talismanic flanker Baily Faloon. McMahon slotted the penalty to put Nenagh in the lead once again.
Young Munster threw everything at the Tipperary rivals in the final minutes and when Corcoran was penalized and yellow carded for a deliberate knock on, Lesczynski made no mistake to restore the home advantage.
Incredibly, there was still time for one final twist as with only seconds remaining, veteran prop Paul Allen was penalised for holding on. At this stage, supporters’ nerves were shredded but McMahon held his composure well to slot the winning kick and seal a famous victory and a place in the final for the Tipperary side against Old Crescent who overcame Clonmel in the other semi-final. The final is fixed for Thomond Park on March 16th with a 2:30pm kickoff.
Nenagh Ormond: Nenagh: 1. Mikey Doran, 2. Dylan Murphy, 3. Matthew Burke, 4. Jake O’Kelly, 5. Kevin O’Flaherty (c) 6. Rob Buckley, 7. Evan Murphy, 8. John Brislane, 9. Charlie O’Doherty, 10. Ben Pope, 11. Conor O’Shaughnessy, 12. Angus Blackmore, 13. Conor McMahon, 14. Davy Gleeson, 15. Josh Rowland, 16. Shane Malone, 17. Jack O’Keeffe, 18. Fionn O’Meara, 19. Joe Coffey, 20. John Healy, 21. Nicky Irwin, 22. Derek Corcoran.
Young Munster: 1. David Begley, 2. Aaron Roulston, 3. Paul Allen, 4. Sean Rigney, 5. Tom Goggin, 6. Alan Kennedy (c), 7. Bailey Faloon, 8. Stephen McLoughlin, 9. Donnchadh O’Callaghan, 10. Julian Lesczynski, 11. Oisin Pepper, 12. Manuel Covella, 13. Samson Seinafo, 14. Ihechi Oji, 15. Hubert Gilvarry, 16. Conor Nesbitt, 17. Christian Foley, 18. Oran O’Reilly, 19. James Horrigan, 20. Marcus Lyons, 21. Cian Casey, 22. Conor Moloney.
