Classy Corcoran savours the moment

By Thomas Conway

There was a beautiful moment following last Sunday’s Munster Senior Challenge Cup final in Thomond Park.

Most of the players had left the field, the stand had emptied out and the atmosphere - which had crackled all afternoon - was just beginning to mellow.

But Nenagh Ormond player/head coach Derek Corcoran, who delivered an exhibition of quality rugby during the seventeen or so minutes he was on the field, was still out on the pitch, savouring the experience with his three young kids.

The 41 year-old has one of the finest rugby intellects around and his longevity as a player is a testament to his physical fitness. But even he was stirred by the emotion. His children, he revealed, are precisely the reason he has continued playing.

“Yes, to have my kids there as well was special,” he admitted.

“That’s the reason I’ve stayed playing at 41, because I wanted them to be able to watch me, and they’ll pick up from where I left off, I’m sure.”

Corcoran admitted that Nenagh had been sub-par in the first-half, but he expressed pride in the group of players and praised their resolve in the second-half, during which they scored four tries, two of which were constructed by exquisite Corcoran cross-kicks.

“I’m just proud of the boys, proud of the effort,” he added.

“To be honest, we weren’t happy with the way we played in the first-half. We were really disappointed that we didn’t really get going at all. But we had a good talk at half-time, we ironed some things out and we said we wanted to represent ourselves properly in the second-half. Then we got a bit of go-forward ball off our set-piece in that second-half and got into our game. And things just started to come off for us and thankfully we came out on the right side of the result.”

As for those kicks, as well as a floated pass for Ben Pope’s second try, Corcoran explained that such moves rely more on instinct than pre-planning. Both were executed to perfection, and resulted in tries by Josh Rowland and Ben Pope respectively, sealing Nenagh’s victory.

“In terms of the cross-field kicks, that’s something we work on all of the time,” he said.

“You don’t really prepare to go on and do them, you see the chance and go for it, out of instinct. And we would always say as coaches that you have to back your instinct, and look, the guys did well to take them and finish them as well.”

Corcoran, like many inside and outside of the club, was particularly attached to the late Keith Hayes. He admits that he finds it difficult speaking about the former club president but cited him as the core reason that Nenagh Ormond has evolved into the club it is today. Its growth and the development of this senior team, he said, are direct consequences of Keith’s input into Nenagh Ormond over the course of many years.

“Keith is still a very hard subject for me to talk about. Just hearing his name and having his initials on our jersey. He started all of this, he was the catalyst, and he did so much for this club,” Corcoran said.