Christians bid for centenary glory by rolling over Rock
Standing in CBC’s way of annexing the centenary title, and inscribing their name on the famous trophy for a record 28th time, is Rockwell College.
The celebrated Tipperary rugby nursery is, along with CBC and PBC, one of the traditional powerhouses of the province’s premier schools competition with 23 titles to its name. The Rock’s previous success came in 2001 in a team that included Denis Fogarty, Mark Melbourne and Gerry Hurley.
It remains one of Munster’s few lasting boarding facilities, has a student population of 500 that includes 160 girls and 80 overseas students. Hence, they are picking from a relatively small pool of players. This year’s senior cup team, for example, is drawn from just 28 senior players, though the starting XV has a real Munster quality to it with every county in the province represented.
Outhalf JJ Hanrahan, for example, hails from Currow in Kerry — birthplace of Ireland internationals Mick Galwey, Mick and Tom Doyle — and though only 16 years old, Hanrahan has figured prominently in a campaign highlighted by his two-try cameo in the semi-final win over Munchins.
Rockwell’s talisman and captain is their inspirational number 8, Patrick Butler from Cashel, while the school can also boast a host of representative players at provincial and national levels. Shane Buckley and Ethen Aherne were Munster U-18s; Butler, Brian Smith, Brendan Cullinane, Gavin Ryan represented the Munster U-19s while Buckley is also member of the current Ireland Schools squad who begin their Five Nations campaign this month.
Coached by Mark Butler, Tom Mulcahy and Fergus Timmons, The Rock created a real upset when overcoming St Munchin’s (14-5) in the semi-final. Though coming out the wrong side of a first-round defeat by Castletroy, they regrouped to prevail over Glenstal in their back-door game.
“Obviously Christians are a very big, physical team and therefore we would have to improve again on the performance we gave against Munchin’s,” says school gamemaster Tony Smith.
“What’s heartening from our point of view is the improvement they’ve shown in every game — if that trend continues on Sunday we obviously have a great chance. It’s a huge, huge ask though against a big team like CBC.”
Christians, meanwhile, have carried the tag of favourites from the start and while they lost to Munchins in round one, they’ve managed to resuscitate their season quite impressively by first beating last year’s winners Castletroy in their back-door match, and then Pres last Sunday. That semi-final win went down to the wire, and while CBC always looked the stronger outfit, they’ll know only a full 70-minute performance will suffice.
“Munchins beat us, Rockwell beat Munchins, Castletroy beat Rockwell, we beat Castletroy — how you draw any conclusions from that I really don’t know in terms of how good or bad we are or they are,” admits CBC head coach, Peter Melia.
Half backs Brian Slater (Munster Schools U-19), Darragh Dunne (Munster Schools U-18) together produced a superb display against Pres, while up front they’ll look to Damien Attridge, Kieran Stokes (Munster U-18), Brian Hayes (Munster U-18 and U-20), Emmett Doyle and Willie Ryan for leadership.
Christians’ strong point remains its pack that has looked the part under the watchful eye of former Munster forwards coach, Brian Hickey. A formidable unit, they perform the basics admirably and showed a couple of times against Pres the effectiveness of the rolling maul which, at schoolboy level, remains untouched under the global ELVs.
The team’s other coaches Melia, Alan Hickey (a Schools Senior Cup winner in 1997 on a CBC team that included Donncha O’Callaghan) and Munster rugby legend John Kelly know they have a fight on their hands if Christians are to win a first title since 2003.
“We’ve actually no superstars and we’ve produced players who are prepared to play for each other,” said Melia. “I think that’s a major plus.”
“Rockwell have a good balanced side. They’re able to mix it up front and put the ball wide. You’ve got to be prepared for everything but again they’re a team lacking superstars and work very hard for each other. You have to respect that.”
CBC: R Clune; E O’Donnell, B O’Leary, J Holland, G Mackesy; D Dunne, B Slater; C Corkery, K Stokes, D Attridge; B Hayes (capt), S Hanbridge; E Doyle, R Barry, W Ryan.
Replacements: R Martin, M O’Mahony, E O’Sullivan, Y Browne, J Maloney, S Barry, C Quinn
ROCKWELL: P McEvoy; K O’Dwyer, D Ryan, B Smith, W O’Connor; JJ Hanrahan, E Ahern; T Doyle, L O’Donnell, B Cullinane; S Buckley, S O’Flynn; S Maguire, J Nolan, P Butler.
Replacements: Cian O’Donnell, Colm O’Donnell, L Horgan, J Lonergan, T Raferty, R Mullane, B O’Rahilly.
Referee: P Fitzgibbon (MAR).
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