Ormond beat Old Crescent on the double

RUGBY: Bank of Ireland Munster Senior Cup Round 1 & Sporting Limerick Charity Cup Semi-Final

Old Crescent 10

Nenagh Ormond 29

MATCH DIGEST

SCORERS – Old Crescent: Try: McKenna Conv: McKenna Pen: McKenna

Nenagh Ormond: Tries: Murphy (2), W Coffey, Healy Convs: Finn (3) Pen: Finn

Nenagh Ormond’s bright start to the season continued as they won on the double against Old Crescent in Rosbrien on Friday night

Conditions were ideal in Takumi Park for a Cup double fixture as the winners would advance to the final of the Limerick Charity Cup v Shannon, and also to the quarter final of the Munster Senior Cup against Garryowen, so needless to say with plenty to play for both sides were at or near full strength.

Old Crescent played with the advantage of the slope in the first half, but it was Nenagh who started very much the stronger. Their scrummaging in particular caught the eye with new recruit Mikey Doran prominent in winning a number of penalties giving a good platform for James Finn to kick for territory. With sustained pressure in the Old Crescent 22, Nenagh forced the opening score when a kickable penalty was conceded by the home side and Finn did the needful to open up a 3-0 lead.

Despite their struggles at scrum time, it must be said that Old Crescent hung in admirably while defending deep in their own half for much of the opening period. Nenagh will probably reflect on their dominance of territory and possession and feel they could have exerted more pressure on the scoreboard but a mixture of small handling errors and some good scrambling by Crescent limited Nenagh to only one clear cut try opportunity prior to half time. From a penalty, Nenagh kicked to within ten metres of the Crescent line and a well-worked set-piece maul ultimately led to Dylan Murphy touching down. James Finn added the extras from a tricky angle and Nenagh were more than full value for a 10-0 lead after 25 minutes.

While they were starved of possession by Nenagh’s dominance of the scrum and disruption of their lineout, when the home side finally got some territory after half an hour, they were very clinical. A loose clearance kick by Nenagh under very little pressure gave Crescent an entry into Nenagh territory. They worked their way through a number of forward carries until Nenagh conceded a penalty and Ronan McKenna easily slotted the three points.

Immediately from the restart, Nenagh again needlessly coughed up easy yards. A lazy effort at rolling away from the tackle gave Crescent another penalty. This time they went for territory, won their lineout, and worked the numbers to score a clinical try through Ronan McKenna which he converted.

Nenagh must have been wondering how they found themselves level after looking so much the better team for most of the first half, but one can’t discount Crescent’s ability to extract the maximum from limited opportunities. And so, at 10-10 you would think Old Crescent were by far the more satisfied at half time.

The second half was a whole lot tighter and tense with Nenagh looking less fluid than they had earlier and Crescent for their part kicking smartly at every opportunity to keep the Nenagh back three turned towards their own line.

With it being a tight affair, it was time for the less seen men of the tight five to duke it out. In this facet Nenagh were well served. In a unit that all deserve credit Jack O’Keefe stood out amongst his front five colleagues. Playing in what is probably an unfavoured role of his in the second row, he was a constant thorn in the Crescent side. The unglamorous work of close in carrying and tackling and disrupting the Crescent efforts at maul time was executed superbly time and again by O’Keefe.

Neither side were making much headway towards scoring in the third quarter, but you felt that the next to score after this period of arm wrestling in the middle third would ultimately triumph. And so, it came to pass.

An injection of fresh legs saw Nenagh change all their front-five apart from the tireless Kevin O’Flaherty, James Meagher, John Healy and Fionn McGibney also entered the fray and with Crescent tiring, playing up the hill, Nenagh found another gear in attack.

A well-worked backline move set captain Willie Coffey loose on halfway. From there he slipped a delicious grubber past the advancing cover and had far too much gas for the rear-guard to catch him as he regathered to score. You will find it difficult to witness a better individual effort all season.

No sooner was the deadlock broken when Nenagh struck again. James Finn, who was playing better and better as the night went on, kicked Nenagh into range in the Crescent 22 and just like in the first half the pack did their thing to maul into sight of the line where Dylan Murphy did not need a second invitation to double his tally.

In many ways though the best was saved for last. A coast-to-coast move involving several sets of hands but with particularly notable inputs from John Healy and James Meagher set Keelan Stephenson racing for the corner. In attempting to finish the move he was taken out illegally by a Crescent defender, however, John Healy was on hand to exploit the advantage accruing and the game was sealed with his try.

To pile on the misery for the home side, the guilty party in the lead up was shown a red card after the score and James Finn added the icing to an already impressive showing for himself and the team by knocking over the conversion from the side-line.

Nenagh Ormond may feel that they could have made life easier by capitalizing on their dominance more early on. At the same time there is a reason why it is several seasons since Nenagh had won at this venue so overall they can only be happy to have broken that duck by finishing so strongly.

A steeper task beckons on Saturday as Division 1A side Garryowen are the next hurdle to advancing in the Munster Senior Cup. While Nenagh will go in as underdogs, their two games so far give plenty of indication that Garryowen will have it anything but easy to hold off a revitalized looking Nenagh outfit.

Nenagh Ormond: James Finn; David Gleeson, Patrick Scully, Willie Coffey, Keelan Stephenson; Derek Corcoran, Nicky Irwin; Mikey Doran, Dylan Murphy, John Hayes; Jack O’Keefe, Kevin O’Flaherty; Rob Buckley, Evan Murphy, John O’Flaherty.

Reps: Peter O’Connor, Niall O’Gorman, Paudie Burke, Joe Coffey, James Meagher, John Healy, Fionn McGibney.