Old Crescent overwhelm depleted UCC

UCC 12 Old Crescent 43: This long-awaited Bank of Ireland Munster Senior Cup quarter-final ended in emphatic triumph for Old Crescent at the Mardyke on Saturday, with the recently crowned Ulster Bank Division 2C champions romping to victory against an understrength College team.

With a promotion battle from Division 2A on their minds, the loss of nine players to Irish Students and U20 teams contributing to their problems, UCC never really had a chance against a Limerick outfit that dominated the forward exchanges and deservedly advanced to a semi-final clash with Young Munster, on a date to be arranged.

Victorious coach Eugene McGovern was delighted with the outcome: “We were coming up against an AIL side two divisions above us. The game has been on-off for a number of weeks and at the end of the day it was 15 against 15.

“We take this competition very seriously, even though our focus was on the AIL up to now. We came to win the game and can now turn our focus on the cup; we’re up against Young Munster, we’ve had a good season, a phenomenal season for the club, and we’re looking forward to a good run-in.”

UCC coach David O’Mahony was disappointed but not surprised given the lack of resources available to him: “This fixture should have been played a long time ago. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good time for us and we had to cope as best we could because we have a huge upcoming game against Banbridge in the All-Ireland semi-final. It was a scratch side as such and it was difficult coming up against a team that won their division and were on a roll. To be fair, they are going well and they deserved the win; we have to hand it to them, they played exceptionally well.”

Crescent were on top throughout and led 15-0 at the break with tries from skipper Cathal O’Reilly and Jack Broderick on top of a penalty from Shane O’Brien.

Alex Simpson scored the third try before Rory Slater and Kevin O’Keeffe combined with a try and conversion for College to leave the score 22-7. Crescent’s O’Reilly struck again for a try that O’Brien converted. While Slater grabbed his second score for College, Sean Monaghan and Val McDermott kept the scoreboard ticking over for the visitors, O’Brien converting both.

UCC:

C McAuliffe; R Slater, K Slater (captain), G Ryan, J Kiernan; T Clifford, K O’Keeffe; S Hogan, D Healy, N Roche; D Collins, P Barry; C Barry, C Gallagher, E Earle.

Replacements used:

B Burns, F Moynihan, P Walters, I O’Donoghue, T O’Hare, L O’connell, G Gavada.

OLD CRESCENT:

K Meade; J Cunningham, C Monaghan, L Hanly, J Broderick; S O’Brien, V McDermott; S Gleeson, C O’Reilly (captain), A Simpson; K Hanly, P Monaghan; SMonaghan, S Fitzgerald, K Doyle.

Replacements used:

S O’Shea, C McGonigle, N Hardiman, D O’Brien, A Harris, C Hegarty, C Linehan.

Referee. K Barry (M.A.R)