Munster Senior Schools Cup: Another tense chapter in Pres v Christians story expected

CBC fans show support for their school during their Munster Schools Senior Cup match against Bandon Grammar School at Musgrave Park, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

Bad weather may have claimed one of Thursday's Pinergy Munster Senior Schools Cup semi-finals but the surviving clash could potentially provide enough tension for both.

Crescent College and Bandon Grammar School were due up at Tom Clifford Park in Limerick but the game fell victim to an unplayable pitch.

Yet it remains all systems go at Cork’s Musgrave Park, from where the Irish Examiner will broadcast the latest showdown between Christian Brothers College and Presentation Brothers.

The schools shared the 2020 title due to the Covid-19 pandemic and contested 2019’s final, with CBC edging the decider 5-3. Christians head coach Tommy Crowe is not expecting anything but a similarly tight outcome when the rivalry is renewed.

“These local derbies are always tight,” Crowe told the Irish Examiner. “History has it that over the last couple of years there’s only ever been a score between the two schools in these sort of matches so I wouldn’t imagine this is any different. It’s just maybe whoever gets the bounce of the ball on the day as I would imagine it will be tight.”

Christians reached the semis with a 37-25 defeat of Bandon Grammar last month while Pres had to rebound from an opening defeat, beaten 17-13 by Crescent.

It has given Ger Burke’s side an extra game, with PBC beating St Munchin’s 31-12 in their quarter-final last week. The short turnaround to the semis gives Pres momentum and Burke said: “Yeah, I think we learned that from when we were in the opposite situation a couple of years ago and Munchin’s carried their momentum into our semi-final and we were kind of a little slow but unfortunately when it comes to Pres v Christians I don’t think anyone is going to be caught being slow off the mark.”

What unites these teams is the intervention of the pandemic that has seen their age group miss competitive rugby for almost two years, their Junior Cup campaigns cut short in 2020 and with no schools rugby in 2021.

“I was knocked for six halfway through September, realising that we had to go back to the basics and just instil some belief in some of these guys, that when things were going wrong on the pitch that we could fix them,” PBC’s Burke said.

“We found ourselves in a situation earlier in the year where if we fell behind it was in our mindset that we were beaten when there might be 40 minutes left to play in the game. So we had to overcome an awful lot and it was a tough, tough couple of months.

“When you’re in a school like Pres and you’re losing people take notice of that so it wasn’t easy but these guys worked really hard to rectify it and we hope they’ve put all those demons to bed.”

Crowe described a similar scenario across town.

“There’s been a two-year gap there for the players but they’ve handled their season well. We’ve lost, we’ve won, we’ve learned our lessons along the way and we’re progressing nicely.

“Our first game was against Bandon who were winners of the pre-Christmas league section so they’re obviously good and we had a shaky start against them. But given the fact that the lads hadn’t played a cup match in two years they learned very quickly as the game went on so we were delighted with them.

“The important thing is that they play. It’s an occasion but the important thing is we play the match not the occasion, so to speak, just keep their heads and play their rugby and if they do that it’ll take them a long way into it.”