Barrett and O'Shea pull the strings as clinical CBC book Senior Cup Final date 

Christians dominate Crescent College with their half-back pairing in stellar form and Bill McCarthy grabbing a brace off the bench

ROARING HOME: Bill McCarthy, CBC Cork reacts after touching down for his try against Crescent College Comprehensive in the Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup semi-final at Thomond Park, Limerick. Pic: Dan Linehan

Munster Schools Senior Cup semi-final:CBC 29 Crescent College Comprehensive 17 

CBC are into the Munster Schools Senior Cup Final following a 27-19 win over Crescent College Comprehensive at Thomond Park.

Christians were dominant throughout with their half back pairing of Christopher Barrett and Charlie O’Shea excelling.

Bill McCarthy got two tries for CBC having come on as a replacement early on, while Barrett and Darragh Prenter also dotted down.

CBC gave notice of their intentions early on with a scintillating Conall Cournane run that tipped through the Crescent defence.

Cournane had gone from his own ’22 to five metres from the Crescent line but his deft offload was knocked on by Christopher Barrett.

The CBC scrum half made no mistake on six minutes when he sniped from the base of a ruck to score the opening try of the game. Charlie O’Shea added the extras to put CBC up 7-0.

The Dooradoyle school thought they were in for their opening score when Fenton put Joyce in the corner but the pass on the left wing was judged to have gone forward.

CBC’s defence held firm for large periods but were eventually sucked in by the Crescent forwards and Fenton fed Joyce for a second time with the try cutting the lead to two.

However, it was CBC that finished the half on the front foot. Successive penalties put them deep in Crescent territory and the ball was fed out to McCarthy, who finished for the try. O’Shea added an excellent conversion that put CBC 14-5 up at half time.

Christian Brothers Cork fans during the Pinergy Munster Schools Boys Senior Cup Semi-Final, Thomond Park between Crescent College v CBC. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

It was more of the same for CBC at the start of the second half with O’Shea showing a bit of magic with a cross-field kick picking out Darragh Prenter for a superb score.

Crescent stayed in the game in the third quarter and Joyce thought he was in once again only to have a second try disallowed for a forward pass.

They were rewarded for that industry on 58 minutes by virtue of a Darragh McKeogh try but it was CBC that finished the game in style.

O’Shea put them 22-10 up with a penalty immediately after the restart and then McCarthy got in for his second try that sealed a comprehensive victory for Christians.

Alex McNamara got a late consolation try for Crescent which Alan Cleary converted that saw the score 29-17 at the full-time whistle.

CBC: C Cournane; D O’Callaghan, L O’Leary, C Corkery, A O’Connell; C O’Shea, C Barrett; R O’Callaghan, D Prenter, S Fitzpatrick; D Mac Coitir, R O’Sullivan; C Galvin, J O’Callaghan, I Morton.

Replacements: C Wallace, P O’Rourke, C Hughes, H McCarthy, M Manning, S Healy, Z Seymour, C Mulvihill, C Taylor, B McCarthy.

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, W Collins, C Fenton.

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

Referee: P O’Connor (MAR).