Tierney pride as Garryowen resist Cork Con storm

Cork Constitution 14 Garryowen 20

Conscious that old rivals Cork Constitution had pulled victory from almost certain defeat in four previous big games this season, Tierney was well aware of the late threat, which is why he praised his team’s defensive ability and character to ride out a late storm.

“First match after Christmas and it’s obviously not going to be as fluid as you would want it to be, but it was about coming down here and being committed at the breakdown and very aware in defence,” Tierney said.

“Away from home you always have to concentrate on defence, try to snatch as many scores as you can and then rely on your defenders to help you through. That’s particularly important against a team like Con who have quality players that will hurt you if you blink.

“They’ve pulled off wins [at the death] four or more times already this season. So when we went six points up near the finish it was always going to come down to a big defensive effort. We knew they had previous in that sense. Once we got that last penalty we knew we would have to defend for those three or four minutes. We worked hard on it and I was proud of the way the guys pulled it off.”

Constitution coach Brian Walsh was far from pleased with the performance of Ulster ref David Wilkinson while his charges found an understrength Garryowen more than a handful.

Questioning Wilkinson’s apparent generosity to the visitors at ruck time, Walsh was in no mood to let his own players off the hook.

“It was a poor game, lot of spoiled possession, lot of slow ball,” he said.

“There were no real passages of play, they kicked a lot of ball. We kicked a lot of ball, it was not our type of game but Garryowen, based on the first half particularly, deserved their win. We didn’t play well. Our set-piece didn’t perform. We didn’t have ball when we had the wind. We didn’t have territory. We kicked two penalties but they got one sniff and mauled us over in the corner and ultimately led [10-6] at the break.”

Jonathan Holland’s three penalties and an Andy O’Driscoll try proved not enough as the light blues stood firm. Rory Brosnan and Ronan O’Mahony grabbed tries and Jeff Ryan added crucial points with two conversions and two penalties.

CORK CONSTITUTION: D Lyons, C Healy, R Clune, I Dinneen, C Desmond, J Holland, G Hurley (captain), B Cagney, A O’Driscoll, J Ryan, P Donnellan, I Nagle, B Hayes, J Ryan, G Lawlor.

Rolling substitutes: A Cudmore, C Corkery, C O’Flaherty, B O’Hara, P Parfrey.

GARRYOWEN: R O’Mahony, L Bourke, A O’Byrne, C Doyle (captain), E Connolly, J Ryan, N Cronin, JP Cooney, J Rael, R Brosnan, A Kennedy, A McCloskey, C Hartigan, T J Anderson, A Kavanagh.

Rolling substitutes: D Rowley, B Cullinane, M Hanrahan, J McGarry, A Griffin.

Referee: D Wilkinson (IRFU).