Belvedere do damage in first-half

Old Belvedere 24 Cork Constitution 8

He was unable to produce a similar result when he bought his new side; Cork Constitution, to Anglesea Road on Saturday.

The hosts dominated the first half, opening up a 14-point lead with three penalties from Aidan Wynne and a try from flanker Jack O’Beirne.

Con threatened a comeback with a Luke Cahill try and a Gerry Hurley penalty reducing the deficit. However Wynne’s fourth penalty sealed the game before he converted a last-minute penalty-try.

Old Belvedere coach Paul Cunningham was thrilled with a winning start to the campaign. “We knew playing Constitution; with the record and tradition they have, that we were never going to have an easy game,” said Cunningham.

“It is so early for the players with only four or five weeks of training and matches, that it was great just to get the win, which was the most important thing. The first half was probably where we won the game. I felt the try a few minutes before half-time was a big one and gave us that nice cushion of 14 points. We were expecting a fightback and it did get a bit hairy in the last 10 minutes when they got back within a score but I think our guys have learnt a lot from last year and their composure saw us close the game out. We defended when we had to and managed to get scores to pull away. It’s a long season though with 18 games and hopefully two more with play-offs.

“Twenty games is far too much to be looking ahead to and for now we are just happy with the win and looking forward to the next game.”

Despite the defeat, Tierney was keen to focus on the positives for Con. “While it’s very disappointing to lose your first game, it is a very long season. The boys gave everything out there. It sets it up nicely next week against Lansdowne in our first game at home and we will be looking to put in a big performance. We are disappointed in some areas but you’re never going to get the perfect game. There were a lot of positives there as well and it is only one game in a long season and this will just help us refocus the mind for training this week. We did a lot of work on the scrum and were delighted with our performance in that area as it gives us a great platform to play off of, and we were clearly on top. There were a couple of times we got pinged with the referee’s interpretation but that’s one of the things you have to deal with. There was also some good play out in the centres with Ned Hodson and Niall Kenneally and I feel you should always maintain a positive outlook at this stage.”

Old Belvedere: D Riordan; R Dunne, R O’Loughlin, P Robb, D Mongan; A Wynne, A Sheehan; A Howard, C O’Flynn, D Lavery; A Trenier, J Kelly; J O’Beirne, K O’Gorman, J Slattery.

Replacements: K O’Neill, P O’Regan, J McWilliams-Grey, R Kavanagh, S McDonald.

CORK CONSTITUTION: M Keyes; G O’Suilleabhain, N Hodson, N Kennedy, R Jermyn; D Lyons, G Hurley; G Duffy, A O’Driscoll, C Corkery; C O’Flaherty, G Lawlor; J Murphy, J Ryan, L Cahill.

Replacement: R Foley.

Referee: M Connolly (IRFU).