’Tarf forward power crushes champions
The battling Dubs sneaked into the top four with a huge win over Dungannon a week ago; on Saturday at Temple Hill, they pulled out all the stops again to oust champions Cork Constitution and secure a place in the decider against competition specialists Shannon.
Clontarf have suffered the disappointment of losing finals before, to Ballymena and Shannon in 2003 and 2006 respectively. Victory was no more than they deserved, believes Clontarf team manager Pat McHale, and few would disagree: “It was a great win, we would have taken it by a point at the start; we slackened off in the last ten minutes of the first-half, had a chat at the break and came out to up the pace. The game plan was to keep them under pressure because they’re a good side. We were particularly happy with our line out because a few weeks ago they destroyed us there.”
