Old Crescent win, but are denied a place in top division

Old Crescent 29 Old Belvedere 24

Crescent had already wrapped up home advantage in the playoffs, and the only way they could improve on their second-place position, secure the only promotion spot to the top division on offer this season, was if they won and division leaders Dolphin lost.

The Cork side however were at home to Malone; it's a long way from Belfast to Cork, and the visitors had nothing at all to gain a big Dolphin win was a banker. In the event, Old Crescent did what they had to do, four-try bonus and the win secured, but as T'Pau feared, Dolphin also did the business in Cork.

"We knew they would probably do what they had to do, but we could only concentrate on what we had to do."

So it was, Crescent taking a half-time lead of 22-5, courtesy of tries from scrum-half Eoin Reddan, a powerful effort from wing Finbarr Hogan, their third just before the break from free-running full-back and captain Jay Cusack, having showed good hands in gathering Daithi Fitzgerald's chip.

Fitzgerald was acting as replacement outhalf after an early injury to Stephen Touhy, and while he did well overall, he was particularly impressive in his place-kicking, four from four on a very blustery day.

Crescent did add a second-half try through the impressive Reddan, but despite the closeness of the final scoreline, were always in control.

The visitors added tries in that period from full-back Peter McKenna, outhalf Glen Strang and fittingly, in the final action of the afternoon, hooker Anthony Ronan (surely destined for a bigger stage) with the final touchdown, two minutes into injury-time.

Most disappointing for T'Pau and his charges was that in any other year, the 55 points with which they ended up would have been more than enough to secure promotion.

"In the games we struggled in it was generally up front that we lost the battles, slow ruck ball. But we had some good wins, picked up a lot of bonus points.

"In the end however the most consistent team over the whole campaign won promotion, and fair play to Dolphin. They deserve to go up there, and I hope to see them do well. At least it's a Munster team going up, and I wouldn't have it any other way, that's good for the province."

All is not lost for Old Crescent however. There is still the second division title to be played, top four teams, while next season, with the demotion of UL/Bohemians, there is the prospect of an additional Limerick derby.

"Bohs are coming down, that will make four Limerick clubs in the second division, a derby game every second week! But even when you get away from that, it's Limerick against Cork, or Munster against Leinster, Ulster, Connacht.

"This year we still had a great opportunity to win this division. Looks like we've ended up with DLSP in the playoff."

For man-of-the-match Reddan, a few regrets at some early results. "I suppose the loss to Sundays Well was a bad one, and we lost to DLSP when they hadn't won a game. We'll give that the top-four a go now, the good weather will suit us for the rest of the games."

As for speculation about Reddan and an impending move from Connacht to Munster next year, less said the better. "I don't know about that now, nothing is confirmed yet."