U18.5 North Munster Cup

Nenagh Ormond v Bruff

Nenagh Ormond U18.5s kicked off the final competition of the season against Bruff in New Ormond Park on Sunday afternoon. When the two sides met early in the season in Phase 1 of the Munster Club competition Nenagh came out on top. However, Bruff also qualified for the Cup and have had some very good results since then so the home side expected a tough battle.

Bruff started well, coming at Nenagh hard and gaining a foothold in their half. After five minutes they won a penalty which they narrowly missed, allowing Nenagh to relieve the pressure and launch an attack of their own. Minutes later, a scrum penalty on the Bruff 22 gave Nenagh an opportunity and Joseph Gleeson stepped up to slot the kick. It was back and forth for the remainder of the first quarter. Nenagh had several chances but could not convert them to points due to a couple of penalties at the breakdown and several passes not going to hand. With 20 minutes gone, another penalty kick from Gleeson gave Nenagh a bit of breathing space but almost immediately after the kick off Bruff won a penalty inside the Nenagh 10 metre line which they kicked to pull the score back to 6-3.

It took almost the entire half but Nenagh eventually started to settle in and put some good phases together. When John Brislane picked from a solid scrum he made it to just outside the 5m line before quick hands from Gleeson and centres Aaron Delahunty and Mason Cawley put Jack O’Flaherty over in the corner. Nenagh got going after that and strong carries from the forwards allowed the home side to get good ball out to Delahunty who broke down the right hand side of the pitch. O’Flaherty was outside him but he stepped in as if to draw and pass before an excellent dummy saw the defenders wrong footed, allowing him to break clear and score himself.

At half time Nenagh spoke about starting the second half where they left off at the end of the first but Bruff had other ideas. A strong lineout maul followed by several drives by the forwards in tight eventually took them over for their first try. At 16-8 the lead was no longer comfortable and Nenagh had to up the pace. In fairness, the forwards worked incredibly hard and with quicker ruck ball the backs began to make great ground out wide. When they got into the Bruff 22 again they made no mistake, getting the ball out to Tristan Madden on the left wing who made good ground before flashing it all the way back to the opposite touchline for O’Flaherty to score again. But Bruff stayed in it and before long they came back with another try to pull the gap back to 8 points and keep the pressure on.

Nenagh responded and finished the match well with two more tries. The first came after some more good work by the forwards saw Nenagh get inside Bruff’s 10 metre line where Cawley’s quick feet and pace took him through the defence and all the way to the line. The second began with another great break by Brislane and some more accurate handling by the backs for Madden to finish well out wide. Gleeson converted both tries to leave the final score at 35-13 to Nenagh.

This was a well-deserved win for our U18.5s who have had a few very close, tough losses lately. They now face UL Bohs in the Quarter Final next weekend.

Best wishes from all of the coaches and players to our teammate Luke Conneally who was injured during the match. He will be a huge loss for us over the coming weeks and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Nenagh Team: Josh Powell, Jack O’Flaherty, Mason Cawley, Aaron Delahunty, Tristan Madden, Joseph Gleeson, Luke Graham, Dylan Schweitnitz, Sam O’Brien, Paddy Griffin, James Simons, Cillian Ryan, Aodán Kirwan, Luke Conneally, John Brislane (c).

Replacements: Ivan Struzia, Jack Butler, Dylan Dorris.