Munchin's forward aces trump Crescent
It was the first time a schools' match had was played under floodlights and it proved a great success with a good sized crowd turning up to enjoy the best efforts of two good teams.
Crescent suffered a blow beforehand when their richly-talented back-row forward Barry O'Mahony had to withdraw because of injury and without his influence they were always going to struggle up front.
Munchins had key men in hooker Gerard Slattery, who scored both tries, and number eight David Gardiner and a couple of line-out experts in Neilus Keogh and skipper Fergus Walsh.
They ensured quality possession for a back division that more often than not chose the conservative route, with Tony Cahill a constant driving force at the base of the scrum, while winger Frankie Daly was always a threat and was deprived of a couple of late tries by a matter of inches.
Nevertheless, it was never plain sailing for Munchins, who enjoyed a spell of early supremacy before being rocked on to the back foot by a Crescent back line that could have proved a real handful had they seen more of the ball.
Winger Martin Hayes made one of the most incisive break of the game after 12 minutes, only to spoil his best work by throwing a wild pass. Paddy Carroll also missed a penalty shot during Crescent's best spell before the strength of the Munchins pack gradually told.
They duly went ahead on the half hour. Centre John Clogan was stopped just short, but Crescent infringed and Wayne Murphy knocked over a fine penalty from 35 metres. However, it was to be his only success as he missed from very kickable range just before the interval and twice shortlyafterwards.
Undaunted, Munchins piled on the pressure and it took some magnificent defensive work from the Crescent pack in which Richard Leonard,Diarmuid Maguire and Oisin Keely tried manfully throughout, to foil them at a couple of close range line-out mauls.
On the few occasions Crescent saw the ball, full-back Michael South was quite outstanding as were scrum-half David O'Carroll and Clem McInerney in the centre. But the pressure applied by Munchins had to tell and they made the all-important breakthrough on 53 minutes when Tony Cahill popped a lovely little inside pass to livewire hooker Gerard Slattery and he crashed his way over.
Slattery struck for the second in the 67th minute to wrap up a magnificent personal contribution that sees Munchins into the final against Rockwell or PBC (who meet in the second semi-final at Thomond Park on Wednesday) into the final on St Patrick's Day.
: J.P. Hartigan; F. Daly, A. Ajoung, J. Clogan, E. Moloney; W. Murphy, T. Cahill; S. Foster, G. Slattery, A. Cotter, N. Keogh, F. Walsh (Capt), L. Mullane, F. Cross, D. Gardiner. Replacements: B. Meade for Keogh 41 mins; M. Kinsella for Clogan 61.
: M. South; P. Carroll, C. Aherne, C. McInerney, M. Hayes; R. O'Sullivan, D. O'Carroll; R. Leonard, L. McInerney, P. Lally, B. Lynch, O. Keely, S. Keyes, J. Seery, D. McGuire (Capt). Replacements: B. Gavin for Aherne 45 mins; M. Nicholas for Keyes 50.
: P. Fitzgibbon (Munster).
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