Coughlan sparkles as Dolphin retain stay in driving seat

THE good news for Munster and Ireland is that Paul O'Connell and Rob Henderson came through another club assignment safely.

There wasn't much joy for Young Munster at Musgrave Park on Saturday though. Dolphin secured another AIB Division 2 victory that yielded a man of the match award for the brilliant youngster, James Coughlan.

From now on league leaders Dolphin will be involved in two "cup finals" as they seek to maintain their lead over Old Crescent.

The first on April 5, when they travel to Ballynahinch and Old Crescent are away to Bective, could be D-Day. The last games of the campaign sees both at home, Dolphin to Malone and Crescent to Old Belvedere, but the whole issue could be decided before that.

Coach Hamish McDonald was delighted at the outcome, particularly because Dolphin had to dig deep for the last ten minutes after scrum-half David O'Mahony was yellow carded.

"The players showed a lot of character in that stage of the game. We had to focus on playing a different way by keeping them pinned in their own half as much as possible."

Young Munster's hopes of making the top four might have taken a bigger hammering but for the fact that Barnhall and DLSP played out a 21-21 draw. That leaves them with a lifeline.

O'Connell, meanwhile, was happy that he managed to emerge unscathed: "It's disappointing to lose and it was a tough game. From a personal point of view, I was just glad to be able to last the 80 minutes.

"It's always difficult coming back from injury and I felt the pace of the game a little beyond me at times.

"Strangely though, I felt quite comfortable in the latter stages of the game. I needed this game from a confidence point of view as much as anything else.

"You'll always have worries at the back of your head even though I was happy that the injury (broken thumb) had fully healed."

Although it would appear that O'Connell figures heavily in Eddie O'Sullivan's national team plans, the big second row is taking nothing for granted:

"All I can do really is to get through games like this and hope for the best." If both Munster and Irish centre Henderson and O'Connell were conspicuous, the single most influential performer at Musgrave Park was surely James Coughlan.

Quite apart from the try he contributed to the victory, Coughlan's regular bursts from the back of line-outs and scrums were a constant worry for Young Munster.

Mike Pettman continues to play an important role for the Cork side, but the best Dolphin back on view this week was surely substitute Mick Knowles, who replaced the injured Barry O'Neill in the first half.

Henderson's first half try against a Pettman penalty allowed the visitors hold a narrow half time lead, but Knowles set the scene for a better Dolphin display when he was stopped short a minute after the resumption.

Pettman gave Dolphin a 6-5 lead after ten minutes and then he converted Coughlan's excellent try.

Young Munster responded with a 70th minute penalty from Brian Murphy but failed to make further impact.

Dolphin's attendances have swelled this season on the back of success. They hope to bring several hundred of them to Ballynahinch and, given the nature of the battle at the top, they will probably need every single one of them.