Rugby: Thurles RFC crash out of the Munster Junior Clubs Challenge cup

Thurles RFC 10
Mallow RFC 13

Thurles crashed out of the Munster Junior Clubs Challenge cup to a poor enough Mallow side, to compound the mess the match doubled up as a league fixture so valuable points were lost also.

The now usual story of being way better than the opposition and failing to win resurfaced again. The constant persistent rain didn’t help and the very lively whistling of a very pernickety official helped Thurles find no rhythm and no luck either. The only consolation was the losing bonus point that Thurles gained.

Things started well with Paddy McGrath slotting over a penalty after two minutes, but then things started to go wrong with dropped balls, going off feet in at the ruck had Thurles retreating constantly at the mid-way of the first half Mallow went ahead following a try to the corner.

A few minutes later Thurles had a man binned after the ref pinged him for the next to give away a penalty and while he was in the bin Mallow extended their lead with a try in the corner following a scrum and some very loose defending.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom and on the stroke of half time Sonny Dwyer crashed over to score with Paddy adding the extras to up the match at half time.

Thurles, when they did string some phases together, got on three occasions within 3 meters of the line and failed to score. The addition of Eamon Connolly to outside half helped and Luke Fogarty added extra to the wing when he came on. Mallow edged ahead with a penalty and no amount of huffing and puffing was able to get over the line.

The frustrating issue is that Thurles were way better but kept getting in their own way; one expects that this team is going to click one of these Sunday’s and show the team that they were last season. There were good performances from Luke Kelly, Eoghan O’Dwyer, and Sonny Dwyer, Mark Cummins played well when brought on.

Team: Paddy McGrath, Cathal Hayes, Owen Byrne, Eoghan O’Dwyer, Sonny Dwyer, Seamie Houlihan , James Maher, John Shaw, Shane Nugent, Ger McCormack. Colm Nolan, Luke Kelly C Peter Kinnane, Sam Quinlan Ciaran Ryan . Subs Eamon Connolly , Jack Kavanagh, Richard Houlihan, Mark Cummins. Luke Fogarty, Jock Fogarty, Darragh Sweeney.

The Seconds
Thurles 2nds played Fethard in Fethard on Saturday evening in the Gleeson League and came away with a convincing 29 : 12 win.

Thurles got try’s were from Donnacha Ryan, Paddy Dunican, Andrew O’Halloran, and two try’s and two conversions from Matthew Kelly.

Team, Thurles: Dylan O Shaughnessy, JJ Schoeman, Armand Schoeman, Darragh Sweeney, Matthey Kelly Andrew O Halloran, Ollie Delaney, Thomas McNamara, Donnacha Ryan, Dwayne Stanley, Eoin Kerrane, Jock Fogarty, Andrew Bourke, Richard Houlihan, Brandon Meany, Ciaran Murphy, Conor Moloney, Dylan Dorney, Craig Raven, Tommy Connolly, Joey Kelly,
Fethard: Mark Heffernan, David Heffernan, Liam McEniry, Cathal Meagher, James O Meara, Kevin Hayes, Martin Murphy, Jonathan Spillane, Luke Fox, Patrick Bourke, Adam Kealy, Sean Prendergast, Edward Grogan, William Ruttle, subs, Brian McCormack, Bill Phelan , Andy Walsh, Jack O’Sullivan Robert O’Brien, David Morgan, John Hanigan.