Crescent College win Munster Schools Senior Cup thriller against Bandon

This quarter-final will live long in the memory of those in attendance. There was never more than a score between the two sides. 

Crescent College Comprehensive scrum-half Andrew Clery about to pass from a lineout against Bandon Grammar School in the Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup match at Dooradoyle, Limerick. Pic: Dan Linehan

Munster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final: Crescent College Comprehensive 33 Bandon Grammar School 29 

After 70-plus minutes of entertaining action, it took a Alex McNamara try to get Limerick outfit Crecent College Comprehensive over a resilient and highly dangerous Bandon Grammar School. This quarter-final will live long in the memory of those in attendance, as the momentum see-sawed between two honest outfits.

In the end, Comp showed the composure under the pressure of the clock to eek out the winning score which arrived four minutes from time. A couple of openings came the way of the Cork school, but they couldn’t quite execute well enough to fashion a winning score of their own.

Played at a dry Garryowen RFC in Dooradoyle, Comp had to just cross the road from their school to get ready for this clash. They will be thrilled to reach the last four but with a strong CBC on the horizon, they’ll need to improve a number of aspects of their game – particularly their lineout – which Bandon dominated.

There was never more than a score between these sides who traded blows from the off. The first arrived from Gerry Joyce of Comp who ran in a try after good work from Fionn Rowesome and Ryan Scanlon on five minutes.

Parity, at 5-5 was found when a tap and go from Conor Mueller gave Cash Healy the platform to bank his sides first score.

When these sides met at the semi-final stage three years ago, it took a Ruadhan Quinn hat-trick to deny Bandon a memorable victory. Charlie Fenton currently occupies that number 8 shirt and he showed his own ability when powering over on 26 minutes, allowing Alan Cleary a routine task from the tee.

Calem Harte hit back to level for Bandon but the spade work was by Zach Piper – whose finger prints were over so much of the quality attack from those in green and black.

However, in the last act of the first half, Darragh McKeogh found the whitewash to register a third try for his side, leaving it 19-12 when Cleary added the extra two.

Bandon dominated the next fifteen minutes, helped by their Head Coach Regis Sonnes making five interval changes to refresh his side. Sonnes is former co-head coach of Toulouse.

They got the next two tries, Mueller with the first after Piper carried off the back of a lineout, before Piper got his own, again collecting off the back of a lineout caught by James Symington before going all the way. This gave them a 24-19 lead but the Limerick side refused to give in.

McKeogh showed his quality once more on 51 minutes after they took the tap penalty – ignoring the lineout option. So, heading down the stretch, they held a slender two-point lead.

Bandon’s lineout was operating at top gear and it yielded another try when Symington finished off to put them back in front. They extras were missed but Comp soon refused a levelling kick at the posts to instead land another try.

The lively hooker, Alex McNamara was on hand to crash over another five-pointer – crucially, Cleary was accurate from the tee – to give them the four point lead.

A free-kick for a lineout infringement and then a penalty for holding on killed any late hopes of a Bandon winner. Crestfallen at full-time, they certainly felt they’d more than matched their Shannonside foes, but once more, Limerick’s leading rugby school found a way to extinguish the Grammar hopes.

Crescent College Comprehensive: F Rowsome; R Scanlon, E Cusack, H O’Halloran, G Joyce; A Cleary, A Clery; R Ryan, A McNamara, C Enright, T Shanahan, J Carmody; D McKeogh, A Obasa, C Fenton.

Replacements: M O’Brien, N O’Riordan, N Efe, O Copley, E Collins, W Collins, W Byrne, R O’Connor, G Tobin, R Mullins.

Bandon Grammar School: S Aherne; I Smith, M Kennedy, C Harte, N Miskella; R Golden, S O’Donovan; S O’Callaghan, Z Piper, J Van Der Velde, A Brennan, C Healy; C Mueller, M O’Regan, P Coughlan.

Replacements: A Barry, J Deasy, J Van Niekerk, J Symington, R Collins, M Tubb, S Barry, D Fuller, N Van Der Westhuizen, L Linehan.

Referee: Brían Bennett