Still room for CBC improvement ahead of decider

Christian Brothers Cork’s Charlie O'Shea acknowledges the fans. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

CBC 29 Crescent College Comprehensive 17 

CBC are into the Munster Schools Senior Cup Final following a 29-17 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.

Despite the margin of victory, CBC head coach Dave Lee wasn’t happy with aspects of the performance, calling it ‘disjointed’.

“It was a tough game all the way through,” said Lee. “Crescent played out of their skins. Thomond Park is a tough place to come and we’re delighted to get the win and get to the final.

“We scored some very good tries out there and we defended very well. We knew that Crescent had a big strong pack and we knew that if we gave them easy entry, which we did at times, we knew that we would have to work very hard for it.

“We really made them work for their scores. We just need to be a bit more clinical in attack as well.” 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.

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 with 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 finished the contest.

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

Lee admits that his Christians side will have to increase all aspects of their game if they are to win their first title since 2020 (shared with PBC) and 32nd overall. A win in the decider would put them level with their Cork rivals.

“We have a few weeks to focus and we have loads to work on because that was far from perfect. Credit to Crescent for making such a game of it. Look, we are into another final and looking forward to it.” 

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).