Munster Schools Junior Cup: Coleman try carries Clon to shock victory over Ardscoil Ris

Clonakilty Community College pulled off a major shock.

Munster Schools Junior Cup: Clonakilty Community College 26 Ardscoil Rís 22   

Clonakilty Community College pulled off a major shock in the Munster Schools Junior Cup with a last-gasp try seeing them to a 26-22 win over Ardscoil Rís at Thomond Park.

Joe Coleman was the hero for Clonakilty with his try from the final play of the game giving them a famous win.

Ardscoil landed the first blow of the game with just seven minutes on the clock through McNamara’s first try.

A chip over the top from out-half Charles Casey wasn’t dealt with by the Clonakilty defence and McNamara was left with an easy finish.

That advantage was doubled on 14 minutes and it was McNamara again that did the damage for Ardscoil.

This time, he took advantage of a wayward Clonakilty clearing kick to the middle of the field. McNamara took off and beat three tackles on his way to scoring in the right corner after a 40-metre run.

Clonakillty should have gotten an immediate reply but knocked on with the line at their mercy after excellent work from the impressive Ewan Knowles.

Clonakilty were soon on the scoreboard, however, when full-back Joe Twomey landed a 50/22 to put his side in a good position.

The forward made the initial moves towards the try line. That sucked in the Ardscoil defence and it was Twomey himself that finished the move off after a Knowles pass.

Daniel Donovan’s superb touchline conversion saw the half-time score at 10-7 in Ardscoil’s favour.

Ardscoil were first on the scoreboard after the break with Leo Carman getting their third try after he took the ball off the scrum and powered over the line.

Clonakilty provided an immediate response after they took full advantage of a mistake from an Ardscoil lineout.

Cillian Sturdy, Tristan O’Driscoll and Knowles all combined and then Twomey ghosted inside, beat a couple of defenders and then touched down for the score. Donovan added the extras to make it a one-point game.

Gavin O’Brien extended Ardscoil’s advantage on 53 minutes when he finished following a superb Charles Casey Crossfield kick with Casey’s conversion putting the score at 22-14.

Clonakilty weren’t done, however, with Knowles scoring their third try and Donovan converting to make it a one-point game yet again late on.

There was still time for a winning try and it came from Clonakilty following a slick scrum move that saw the ball moved right after a strong initial carry by James Tobin.

Knowles then passed to Twomey, who freed his hands and offloaded to Coleman who did just enough to dot down in the right corner to seal a stunning win.

Clonakilty Community College: J Twomey; J Coleman, D Donovan, E Knowles, F O’Donovan; L Rohan, C Sturdy; Y Al Rubeei, Z Llewellyn, C Kearns; D Murphy, R Draper; T O’Driscoll, E Murphy, J Tobin.

Replacements: L Fleming, C McCarthy, N O’Donovan, A Murphy, T O’Brien, O White, M Draper, I Neville, T O’Keeffe, L Griffin.

Ardscoil Rís: C McNamara; J Robinson, R Stack, K O’Neill, G O’Brien; C Carey, D Kirwan; S Golden, S Curtin, J Boyce; T Hannon, D Moran; H Mullen, J Daly, L Carman.

Replacements: T Byrnes, D Connolly, C McKenna, G Roberts, F Brown, S Nolan, G O’Mahony, C Barry, JJ Barry, A Galligan.

Referee: P Roche (MAR)