Watch: Exclusive broadcast of the Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup final

The Irish Examiner, in association with Pinergy, will broadcast the clash of Crescent College Comprehensive of Limerick and Cork's Presentation Brothers College in the Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup final.

Today’s Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup final has a lot to live up to following two nail-biting semi-finals but there is plenty to suggest another thriller is on the cards when Crescent College Comprehensive meet Presentation Brothers Cork at Thomond Park

It is a significant day for Munster Rugby with all the action to be streamed live by the Irish Examiner as the schools play for a trophy now named the Garrett Fitzgerald Cup in tribute to the province’s former chief executive.

The build up begins at 1.30 with the match kicking off at 2pm. Connor Morris will be lead commentator and will be joined by former Munster out-half Jonny Holland and Young Munster coach Gearóid Prendergast.

You can watch the game here:

The Munster Schools Senior Cup played a huge part in the life of Fitzgerald, who passed away in February 2020. He won it as a player with CBC in 1971 and later coached the school to five titles, including four in a row between 1997 and 2000.

This season’s decider also features schools with plenty of history in the competition as Crescent bid for a 12th title and Pres aim to close the gap on their city rival CBC’s record tally of 33 with a 29th.

Both teams overcame stubborn opposition in their respective semi-finals and needed to dig deep to come from behind late on to reach the final, PBC overcoming a 19-7 deficit to Christians at Musgrave Park four weeks ago to score two tries in the last quarter and win 2-19 thanks to a nerveless touchline conversion of his own try from full-back Ben O’Connor.

Crescent had to wait a little longer to play their last-four clash with Bandon Grammar following a postponement and they needed to bide their time on the pitch also at Takumi Park as a hat-trick from No.8 Ruadhan Quinn got them past the West Cork school in a dramatic 17-15 victory.

“If the weather doesn’t interfere too much it should be a cracking game,” PBC head coach Ger Burke told the Irish Examiner. “Two sides that like to play ball, Crescent are very unpredictable and that makes them hard to prepare for but it should be a cracking game.

“There are two really talented sides that are encouraged to play so hopefully it will live up to that.” The return of competitive sport following a two-year hiatus due to Covid has been embraced by both schoolsb with the Limerick school already celebrating a Munster Schoolgirls Hockey Senior Cup triumph following victory at Garryduff last week.

“It is a hockey school as well but it would mean everything to the rugby side to win as well,” Crescent head coach Lee Nicholas said. “Before this season we were kind of struggling for a win in that we had always met one of the teams who had eventually gone on to win the trophy or reach the final so we had a frustrating couple of years in the school.

“I think it was 2016 when we were last in the final and we were beaten below in Cork (by CBC) so it’s good to have it in Limerick this time as well and the fact we were able to play all our games in Limerick due to our form before Christmas is also a plus.

“There’s a serious buzz in the school and everyone’s just really looking forward to Tuesday because it’s been a while since we were last in a final.

“And after the two years we’ve had with Covid, missing out on schools rugby and not having that camaraderie, people are really hungry for that this year. So it’s nice to finally be able to get down to it. We waited so long for that and now we finally have it after two years, absolute relief to be playing it and hopefully winning it.” Pres, meanwhile, are going for a Junior-Senior Cup rugby double. The Juniors reached their final last week with a semi-final win over Crescent in Cork and Burke said: “Rugby being back has been fantastic and then you have two sides going well, it’s just wonderful to walk into school at the moment, smiling faces and all the chanting, the atmosphere is through the roof, it’s a privilege to be around and it does so much for the players. The Junior Cup squad are doing a fantastic job as well and it could be a very special year for Pres.” 

Crescent College Comprehensive: J O’Dwyer; B Nash, C O’Halloran, W Hoffman, J McEnery; O Davey, J Duggan; L O’Grady, C Henchy, M Fitzgerald; J Somers, C Kelly; M Clein, P Obasa, R Quinn.

Replacements: C Clery, A O’Connor, J Madden, D Murphy, A Ahearne, F Casserly, M Lyons, E O’Callaghan, H Ezomo, E Bennett.

Presentation Brothers College: B O’Connor; A Twomey, S Sexton, R O’Shaughnessy, S Condon; H Coughlan, M Murphy; F Cowhig, D Sheahan, S Patricio, L Herdman, A Keane, F Roussel, I Dennehy, J Sheahan - captain.

Replacements: P Doyle, C Twomey, T McCarthy, J Lynch, D Healy, D Noonan, L Tuohy, G O’Leary Kareem, Z Dinan, A Cooke.

Referee: Frank Murphy