Old foes prove tradition is not dead
On Saturday next the players of Cork Constitution and Shannon will retrace familiar steps when vying for the accolade of the best club side in the country.
The consistency of the two sides in this competition is unrivalled. Cork Con contest their fourth final in six seasons, while Shannon are seeking the title for the sixth time.
When one considers the effect that the professional game has had on club rugby in this country, the staying power of these two clubs is remarkable. Arguably, no two sides in the country have contributed more players to their professional provincial squad. The advent of the Celtic League has resulted in the playing resources of these two clubs being stretched to the limit. Yet year after year they remain competitive.
Munster’s odyssey in Europe has proved that while skill, spirit and tradition may not be enough in themselves to secure ultimate glory, teams without those attributes fail to get out of the starting blocks.
When it comes to Cork Con and Shannon, tradition is everything. The young players who represent both these clubs on Saturday will be mindful of that. They are the custodians’ of jerseys from two of the proudest clubs in the country.
During the 1980’s the rivalry between Con and Shannon was intense. It was fantastic to be part of it. The physicality of those clashes was far greater than existed in the Interprovincial Championships at the time.
Season after season the two clubs vied for success in the Munster Senior League and Senior Cup and the records show that there was very little between them.
In the days before the advent of the AIL, those outside of Munster failed to appreciate the intensity of competition between all the sides in the province.
I remember travelling to Dublin for Irish squad sessions. Meeting our counterparts from Leinster and Ulster, they would often question how Con were beaten by the likes of Shannon or Young Munster the previous day. After the first few seasons of the AIL they began to understand why.
Shannon’s forward unit throughout the 1980’s was one of the most outstanding to represent any club. Their front row of Ginger McLaughlin, Noel Glynn and Noel Ryan were rarely subdued. The international second row combination of Mick Moylett and Brendan Foley was outstanding on the club stage and the dynamic back row of Niall O’Donovan, Colm Tucker and Ger McMahon possessed all the skills.
It was no coincidence that all eight wore the Munster jersey at some stage of their career.
At halfback the likes of Sonny Kiely and Johnny Pierce had the ability to control any game. The combination at No. 8 and 9 of O’Donovan and Kiely regularly topped the try scoring charts during this period. Their rivalry with Anthony O’Leary and Mick Bradley was an outstanding feature of the games from that era.
On the sideline throughout that period was former Cork Con captain Jerry Murray. Whether in a coaching or selectorial capacity, he always had a major influence on the outcome of those games.
His team talks were the stuff of legend. I was privileged to play against him as a young UCC student in the Munster Cup in the late 1970’s. He had played his first Munster Senior Cup game before I was born.
In those days your career in Munster was measured not by the amount of international caps you possessed, but by the number of Munster Senior Cup medals you had in your pocket. They were a treasured possession.
How times have changed. I am the fortunate holder of four. The fact that all were secured by defeating Shannon in the final makes them even more valuable.
The passage of time has diminished the significance of the Munster Senior Cup. In truth it was reduced, even before professionalism, when the AIL was introduced in the 1990/’91 season. The growth in popularity of the Heineken Cup has unfortunately led to a demise in the following of the All Ireland club competitions.
In many respects it is hard to reconcile that 45,000 people will travel to support Munster in a Heineken Cup semi-final and less than 10% of that amount would turn up to see the AIL semi-final’s over the weekend.
Yet to Cork Con, victory next Saturday would mean as much to the club as winning the inaugural trophy 14 seasons ago. I am certain that the same applies to our Limerick rivals.
Two years ago, Con left Lansdowne Road shattered after a devastating defeat to Shannon. The fact that Con had lost to Dungannon in the final twelve months earlier made it even harder to take. A few weeks ago the two finalists played against each other in Temple Hill.
The quality of that game surpassed anything I have seen in the Celtic League this year. On Saturday we can expect another epic encounter.
Should Con emerge triumphant, the president of the IRFU, John Quilligan, will present the trophy to a man who has been central to everything the Cork club has achieved over the past 10 years, Jerry Murray (yes, son of... ). And they say tradition is dead.
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