Coppinger aims to fire up Clonakilty

DECLAN COPPINGER puts out fires for a living, but this afternoon he and his charges from Clonakilty RFC hope their endeavours might just be the cause of a few.

As a fireman based in Cork city, he has doused a few flames in his time, but at Lansdowne Road he will be doing everything in his power to extinguish the challenge of Suttonians in the AIB Division Three League Final and, in the process, spark off a few celebratory bonfires in West Cork.

The occasion was soured last week when the IRFU announced that the match would not be played as planned at headquarters.

But with the cancellation of the Division Two final, the Division Three decider was returned to the famous old ground.

For Coppinger the whole saga was an unnecessary diversion.

“The reality is that it does not matter where the game is played.

“It is not a big deal for me. I simply want to play and win and myself and the players are just keen to get on with it.”

Coppinger, who acts as de facto director of rugby and back row bastion for Clon, is very keen to meet Suttonians. They were only one of two teams to beat his side in Division Three this season.

“This is very much a chance for us to redeem ourselves because they beat us in our first match after Christmas and I felt it was a game we could have won. Suttonians are a very good side and they’ve been helped with former Leinster lock Aidan Kearney coming on board along with a few foreign players.

“They’re a very solid team and the mistake we made against them earlier in the season was that we allowed them finish everything and we didn’t make the most of the chances which came our way.

“We had plenty of possession, but were not physical enough with them and this time around we will be looking to engineer some early breaks and then stay on top. We’re not just a forward-driven side and we can move the ball as well as any team and we’ll be doing that as much as possible.”

Coppinger, who has been at Clonakilty for three seasons, feels there is a growing momentum in both the club and the team.

“Initially we were a very naïve team, but we’re more battle-hardened now and much more mature in the way we face the challenges put to us. And this year, we’ve won a lot of games and that in itself has provided its own momentum.”

As a player once on the verge of the Munster squad, Coppinger knows about the potency of desire.

“I’d never won anything in my career and missing out last year on promotion when we were beaten by Barnhall in a play-off was a big blow, but we’ve learned from that and we set out our goals this year. The first was to gain promotion and once we’d achieved that we wanted to win the Division. We did that and now we want to win this final.

“We were beaten twice in the regular season — by Bruff and by Suttonians. We got revenge on Bruff in the semi-final and now want revenge against Suttonians in the final.”

With seven sets of brothers — Declan and his brother Ray being among them — in the squad, there is a powerful bond in the Clon ranks.

“Winning is not just for the team, it is also for the likes of the bagman, for the ladies’ committee, for everyone involved. It may just seem like another game, but it is going to be massive for the players and for everyone else and that’s why we want to win so badly.”

And he hailed the players who have come through in recent years, such as centre Dave Lombard, prop Peter Stout and youngsters Darragh Lynch, Joe Crowley, Colm Murphy and Tadhg Wright.

“We don’t get the finished articles coming our way, we have to find them and mould them ourselves. We’ve been doing that and it has been working, although I wouldn’t recommend it for the stress levels,” he laughed.