'They dug in and managed to rescue it' - Crescent late show denies CBC

The sides will have to do it all again in Limerick.

Wed, 22 Feb, 2023 - 06:26

Stephen Barry, Musgrave Park

Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup semi-final

CBC 15

Crescent College 15

This Crescent College side are well versed in last-gasp semi-final drama.

Last year, Ruadhán Quinn’s late, late try saw them past Bandon Grammar on their way to winning the Munster Schools Senior Cup.

This year, with 11 survivors from that team, they needed an even more astounding comeback to force a replay at Thomond Park next week that keeps their title defence alive.

Christians’ watertight defence appeared to have them coasting towards a first final since 2020 but Crescent found one last acceleration.

They crossed for two tries in the final three minutes from Cathal Lanigan Ryan and Eoin O’Callaghan. With some of their players unable to watch, they still needed O’Callaghan to nail a stunning sideline conversion to level the game.

“It seemed like it was all long gone with five minutes to go but in fairness to our lads, they dug in and managed to rescue it,” said head coach Lee Nicholas. “We’ve done that in a couple of pre-season games already and it was a similar story in our semi-final last year.

“It is within them so we always had that in the back of our heads.”

First, an inventive tap-and-go set play from five metres out sent Lanigan Ryan over the line with the game clock approaching the 70th minute.

And then with their final attack, Crescent worked the ball wide. Jed O’Dwyer beat his man with some nifty footwork and sent O’Callaghan down the line. His step and hand-off were enough to just reach the corner.

O’Callaghan dusted himself down and put a missed conversion moments earlier to the back of his mind to slot the most difficult kick of the day.

“From being in a position of control we found a way to mismanage the last 12 or 13 minutes,” said Christians’ head coach Tommy Crowe.

“We expended too much energy defending for 20-odd minutes in the first half. You need that energy at the end of the game and maybe we ran out of steam.

“We’re still in it. We’ll have to go to Limerick, unfortunately, but that’s the way it goes.”

That may well feel like another away match for Christians, with no organised student section of supporters permitted at Musgrave Park following their conduct in the victory over Pres last month.

Both sides will have to take stock of injuries in the coming week. Christians’ captain Éanna McCarthy exited with a worrying knee injury, while Crescent’s scrum-half Marcus Lyons (knee) and hooker Conor Clery (collarbone) also picked up knocks.

Crescent spent the opening 20 minutes camped in Christians’ territory and it took the Cork school half an hour to find their way into the opposition 22. Remarkable, then, that it was Christians who held Crescent scoreless to take an 8-0 half-time lead.

Their defence was uncompromising, although they got on the wrong side of referee Joy Neville. The first seven penalties all went Crescent’s way. All were awarded in Christians’ own half.

But each time Christians found the response. They disrupted the Crescent line-out, while Sam Loftus twice turned over advancing mauls.

O’Callaghan missed just right with an early penalty before Daniel Rock stole another line-out and Michael Foy hacked clear when the ball was spilled close to the line.

McCarthy was sin-binned in the 17th minute but his side managed to win the following seven-minute period as they broke the siege. They were awarded five penalties on the trot, two of which Benjamin Lynch kicked at goal, slotting the second.

When they finally got into the opposition 22, they took their chance. Hooker Adam Wrona, a two-try replacement against Pres, made it three in two games by touching down at the back of a maul. Lynch’s conversion drifted wide.

Christians conceded their first points straight from the second-half kick-off, an offside call allowing O’Callaghan to split the posts.

It wasn’t a one-score game for long. In the 40th minute, Lynch’s dink in behind was spilled and Alex O’Connell capitalised to send Christopher Barrett over for his second try in two games. Lynch’s conversion made it 15-3.

It looked over but it’s only half-time.

Scorers for CBC: Tries: A Wrona, C Barrett; Conversion: B Lynch; Penalty: B Lynch.

Scorers for Crescent College: Tries: C Lanigan Ryan, E O’Callaghan; Conversion: E O’Callaghan; Penalty: E O’Callaghan.

CBC: B Lynch; C Barrett, A O’Connell, G O’Riordan (L O’Leary 69), E Cahill Murphy; CP O’Shea, J Casey (C Foley 70); S Loftus (D Callaghan 63), A Wrona (S O’Shaughnessy 70), H Foster (C Walsh h-t); M Doyle (G Good 52), M Foy; M Skelly, D Rock, É McCarthy (capt) (C Kennelly 45).

Replacements not used: O Prenter, R O’Keefe, J O’Callaghan.

CRESCENT COLLEGE: J O’Dwyer; E Cusack, E O’Callaghan, J McEnery, J Boland (M O’Mara 64); R Godfrey (O Davey 41), M Lyons (B Gallagher 60); M Fitzgerald, C Clery (C Fenton 30), D O’Dwyer (C Lanigan Ryan 52); J Somers, S Magee (C Ryan 52); F Casserly, A Ahearne (C Quinn 52), C Kelly (capt).

Replacements not used: J Byrne, J Power, E Bennett.

Referee: J Neville (MAR).