Crescent fancied to march on against Castletroy

Castletroy and Crescent will tonight have the privilege of playing under the Thomond Park lights in the first of the SEAT Munster Schools Junior Cup semi-finals (7pm).

The Limerick derby promises to be a tight affair between the long established Crescent, who claimed their sixth and last title 2011, while the much younger Castletroy claimed the trophy in 2008 and again two years ago.

Castletroy advanced to the last four after a remarkable quarter-final win over St Munchin’s. They looked in control when leading 14-0 after tries by Michael Ryan and Darragh Cullimore and later by 21-7 following another try by Conor Bermingham.

St Munchin’s battled back to draw level (21-21) before Castletroy produced a super rolling maul that led to a fine try by centre Paul Clancy deep in stoppage time.

On the same afternoon, Crescent cruised to a 22-5 victory over Rockwell when flying wing Conor Phillips combined blistering pace with superb angles of running to score a couple of tries from long range.

They had another try from out-half Michael Fenton and are favourites to advance to a decider against the winners of tomorrow’s Musgrave Park clash of Cork rivals CBC and PBC.

CRESCENT (probable): J Hurley; C Cusack, T O’Hora, N O’Sullivan, C Phillips; M Fenton, A Cosgrove; D Nevin, E O’Halloran, C Dennehy, F Coleman, P King, K Moloney, J Hennessy, D Feasey. Replacements: M Edwards, S Faloon, C Fitzgerald, B Leahy, M Hickey, K Legear, S Burton, D Shaw Kelly.

CASTLETROY: D Moloney; I McCarthy, C Cosgrave, P Clancy, E Murphy; M Kitt, C Lyons; R Keaveney, M Ryan, A Myers, D Cullimore, S Devitt, E O’Shea, C Bermingham capt, D McCrann.

Replacements: J Hogan, M Danyal, S Fincane, S Mulkern, S Burns, H Bartley, M O’Sullivan, C Humphries.