Dolphin go up with style

Dolphin 38 Malone 6

For a club that has so often had to scrap its way to the finishing line just to avoid relegation, the champagne sprayed around Musgrave Park on Saturday afternoon must have tasted all the better. This was sweet success for the Cork club.

Needing a win to secure top spot in division two and keep nearest rivals Old Crescent at bay, Dolphin ended their league campaign just as they had started it. Just as they had signalled their intentions at the beginning of the season, with bonus-point-winning defeat of DLSP, so they ended it with a controlled dismantling of Belfast side Malone.

Early nerves were steadied by the boot of John O’Mahony, who cancelled out the penalty of Malone player-coach Jacques Benade and then added another before flanker Shane Madigan crashed over for the opening try.

Malone pegged back the lead briefly to 11-6, when full-back Garreth Fry took over the penalty-kicking duties from the injured Benade on the half-hour. However, Dolphin fly-half O’Mahony restored an eight-point lead to give the home side a 14-6 interval lead.

With one foot in Division 1, Dolphin bridged the gap comfortably after half-time. Lennie Twomey, John O’Mahony and replacement centre Jack Purcell all scored tries converted by the Dolphin No 10, who also added a penalty to set up a powerful victory marred only by the late injury to full-back Mike Pettman, hospitalised with a suspected shoulder dislocation.Nevertheless, it would have taken an awful lot to stop the celebrations, which followed the final whistle.

“We’re delighted,” captain Dave Pomeroy said. “It was a great game and it’s a great day for the club. We’re usually at the other end of the table, propping the rest up but, at the start of the year, we put in a lot of hard work and it’s shown right the way through the season. This has been the reward for it.

“We kept the momentum going throughout the season, never let our heads get too big, kept both feet on the ground and it’s been a good season. We’ve worked so hard for this and it’s a bonus that it’s in our centenary year.

“It’s been a great year for the club and an emotional one. We’ve been at the bottom a lot, got to the last few games and had to win them to stay up; this year was a good turnaround. It’s been brilliant.”

Dolphin coach Hamish Adams paid tribute to his players’ season-long commitment to the cause: “They’ve worked really hard this year, never shirked anything and a lot of people probably don’t realise the work they’ve put in. It’s been a big commitment, but it’s paid off. This is a just reward and we’ll enjoy it for the next few weeks.”

However, while the sun shone at Musgrave Park, the cold, swirling breeze that accompanied it also brought a degree of realism about the way forward for Dolphin.

Coach Hamish Adams has already started planning for life in the top flight, where the pitfalls in an age of haves and have-nots, contracted and non-contracted players, are all too obvious to him.

“The contracted player situation is the main issue,” the New Zealander said. “Cork Con have got 10 or 11 contracted players and so, when they’re available, it’s a huge task for any team to play against them. We haven’t got any contracted players at this stage but, after the way we’ve performed this year, I’d say there could be a couple.

“We have contingency plans in place already for next season but, obviously, they all hinged on this result,” Adams said. “It’s a very small window of opportunity as far as player recruitment goes. We’ve only got until the end of May to bring in people.

“Obviously we do need some new players, some quality to bolster us up, and that’s going to be a big test. At the same time we don’t want to ruin the integrity of the squad as it is at the moment. These guys have got there on their own merit and there are some very good players here. But that’s the situation we’re in.”

Adams’ situation at the club is also unsure. His two-year contract expires at the end of the season and he refused to comment on whether he had received offers from elsewhere.

“I couldn’t say,” Adams said. “We’ll have to see what the story is with the club and go from there. Whether they want me back is another issue, but it will be pretty hard to move away from here with the great feeling there is in the team. We’ll just wait and see.

“My career is coaching and first division football is where I want to be working.”