Nenagh Ormond Notes
Munster Senior Cup Quarter Final
Nenagh Ormond 26-3 Dolphin
Nenagh Ormond Senior XV took a break from AIL at the weekend when they hosted Dolphin in the Munster Senior Cup Quarter Final. Dolphin play their rugby in Division 1B and so would have been favourites going into the match but Nenagh are enjoying a good run of form and in the end were runaway winners.
Nenagh dominated the opening exchanges and got on the scoreboard after just seven minutes when, just inside the Dolphin half, Derek Corcoran popped to Anthony Kavanagh who ran a good line and broke through the defence. He made it to the 22 before the defence came closing in but he managed to pass to fullback Fergal Hayes who ran around the remaining defenders to touch down. KolioHifo converted and Nenagh were seven points up.
Although Dolphin did have a spell on the attack in the middle of the half, Nenagh continued to have the lion’s share of the possession and territory otherwise. The next score came in the last five minutes when they got a lineout inside the Dolphin 22. Nenagh kept it tight and in fairness to Dolphin they held out for several phases but when Derek Corcoran came flying onto the ball at pace they could not stop him. Dolphin managed to make their way back up the pitch and win a penalty which they slotted to leave the half time score at 12-3.
Dolphin had a much better start to the second half, retaining possession well and putting pressure on the Nenaghdefence. But their hopes were dashed less than ten minutes in when Nenagh’s Anthony Kavanagh capitalised on a fumble on half way. Kavanagh kicked on twice, with the ball stopping perfectly just over the try line. Kavanagh was just five metres from it and was closest to it when he was held back by a chasing defender, preventing him from scoring. The referee was in a good position to see everything and awarded a penalty try which was converted by Hifo.
At the start of the final quarter a super intercept from David Corcoran saw him break from inside his own half and pop to Hifo just ten metres out from Dolphin’s try line. Hifo was tackled and isolated and Dolphin won possession back but knocked on minutes later to give Nenagh a scrum and a good attacking position. LemekiVaipulu popped to Mike Fogarty from the base of the scrum and the ball went out to Hifo. Fogarty followed his pass and looped around Hifo, choosing an excellent line and slicing the defence wide open to score. Hifo converted to leave the final score at 26-3.
This was a great win for Nenagh over a higher ranked side and they are now into the semi-final of the Munster Senior Cup where they face holders Cork Constitution away.
Team: Fergal Hayes, John Long, Derek Corcoran, Willie O’Connor, EathonMoloney, KolioHifo, Mike Fogarty, John Hayes, Peter O’Connor, Fergal Brislane, Andrew Mackey, Kevin O’Flaherty, Michael Slattery, Anthony Kavanagh, LemekiVaipulu. Reps: Aidan Doyle, ConorBrislane, Kevin O’Gorman, Anthony Grey, David Corcoran, Peter O’Leary, Gerard O’Gorman.
Thomond 22-14 Under 20s
Nenagh Ormond Under 20s travelled into Limerick to play Thomond in the Donal Walsh league last Saturday. They travelled with a sense of making the best of this game after a frustrating couple of months of games being called off due to weather conditions and player availability.
They started with some great continuity going through the phases only for the outstanding Brendan McAdams to be held up just short of the line. Nenagh were dominating at this stage of the game, particularly in set piece play where the two Armitage brothers were combining very effectively in the lineout securing nearly a 100% return.
Thomond hit back with a very fortunate breakaway try from their own line after a Nenagh spilled pass. Nenagh quickly reasserted their dominance again and, with Jack Molamphy leading by example with some very intelligent play, scored a great try and converted it to leave the half time score at 7-5 to Nenagh.
The second half started in the same manner with Nenagh dominating through some great carries from Niall O’Gorman, Ben Maloney and James Collins. The game was becoming morefree flowing in the second quarter and some great defensive work by Shane McCarthy, Calem McGrath, Ian McNamara and Liam Finn stopped Thomond from getting through. Eventually though the pressure told and Nenagh conceded a converted try.
Nenagh went straight back on the offence after this playing some very intelligent rugby with McAdams and Maloney cutting through Thomond’s defence. It was Maloney in the end who touched down for great try which was converted. At this stage, injuries were beginning to hurt Nenaghand this led to them conceding two tries in the final quarter totally against the run of play leaving a final scoreline of 22 to 14 in favour of Thomond.
This was a great workout for this fine bunch of players and with training on Friday nights at 8pm a victory is not far away. They play Kanturk this Saturday at home at 2.30pm and a repeat of last week’s performance should see them claim the points.
Under 15s 12-26 Presentation/Richmond
Our Under 15s welcomed table toppers Presentation/Richmond to Lisatunny on Sunday morning. The loss of Luke Connolly to illness before the match was a big blow. Presentation took the game to Nenagh in the early stages but our defence held firm. When we did have the ball we were very static in our attack play so we couldn’t get the ball out wide. This pressure we put ourselves under allowed Presentation to dominate territory and eventually this dominance told with them scoring under the posts. The easy conversion was added for a 7 – 0 lead. Nenagh came back into the game after this setback and finally our backs found some shape and depth in their movements. From one of these backline moves the ball found its way wide to Sean Hayes and he outpaced the cover to score a fine try under the posts. Jack Moran added the extras and we went in at half time at 7 all.
We conceded an early try and conversion at the start of the second half but then we went through our best period. Danny O’Connor carried some great ball around the fringes, constantly getting us over the gain line and providing a great platform for his scrum half Peter Rainsford to launch our backs in attack. Again we found space on the left and Sean Hayes was put away to get his second score of the day. The conversion was missed but the game was on a knife edge at 14-12. Presentation ran hard at us but some superb tackling by Conor McMahon in the centre and Dylan Knight up front kept them at bay.
The turning point in the game came with less than 10 minutes left on the clock. Presentation blocked down a kick and it appeared to have been grounded over the try line by Nenagh for a 22 drop out but the referee adjudged it hadn’t been grounded correctly and the subsequent grounding by Presentation was given as a try. The conversion was added for a 21-12 score. Presentation got in for a fourth at the death leaving the final score Nenagh 12 Presentation Richmond 26.
Our next match is away to Thomond next Sunday. Training continues at 7pm in Tyone on Tuesday and Thursday night this week.
Team:Oisin Larkin, Sean Hayes, Conor McMahon, Jack Moran, James Ferris, Owen Farrell, Peter Rainsford, Danny O’Connor, Dylan Knight, EoghanSlevin, RuanO’Hanluain, Lorcan Tuohy-Donnelly, Patrick Finn, Kian O’Kelly, Jack O’Keefe, Patrick Whelan, Conor Malone, Michael Courtney-Bowler, Kevin Harding.
U14 East Munster Cup
Under 14s 22-5 Fethard
On Sunday at New Ormond Park our Under 14s got back to winning ways in the East Munster Cup second round against Fethard. Fethard started brightly and had the better of the early exchanges but failed to get into our twenty-two. Once we had weathered the initial storm we began to stamp our authority on proceedings. Dylan Murphy and David O’Sullivan began to warm to the task and started to cause mayhem in the retreating Fethard defence every time they gained possession. It wasn’t long before a penetrating run brought Nenagh to within striking distance of the line and it was Murphy who offloaded to James Meagher who stormed through the final resistance to put us on the scoreboard. Conditions were dry but the going was extremely soft underfoot and the blustery wind made conversion attempts a lottery.
Nenagh did not take the foot off the gas and continued to take the game to their opponents who were constantly back-pedaling in an attempt to halt the rampaging Nenagh forwards for whom Cathal Ryan was again brave and direct in his forays towards the Fethard try line. At times it seemed like half the opposition were trying to put a halt to his gallop. Nenagh won a penalty halfway between the ten metre line and the twenty-two and Liam King kicked for touch. The line-out to Nenagh was five metres out and Dylan Murphy rose highest to catch the throw from Sean Richardson and before the defence could react he dived over and dotted down our second try. Ten nil to Nenagh at the break and Fethard looked a dejected side.
They obviously responded well to their mentors at half-time as they were a completely different outfit for long periods of the second-half and they showed us that they were not going to leave without a fight. They started to support each other much better and we had great difficulty getting our hands on the ball. Only for strong defence a lesser side could have been in trouble.
After Nenagh turned over possession at a ruck inside the Fethardtwenty-two, the Fethard players surged out of defence and were heading towards their ten metre line in the middle of the park. One man in a red and white shirt tore into the middle of the opposition and ripped the ball from their rolling maul. In a flash he had shrugged off the attentions of the closest opposition who - realising too late what had happened - tried vainly to switch quickly from attack to defence. Then he was through the remaining cover and bursting towards the line to score under the posts and Liam King added the extras to take our score to seventeen points without reply. There is no doubt that Cathal Ryan is one of our most improved players this year and this great individual score was just reward for a great team player who once again showcased his skills in the number six shirt.
With confidence renewed Nenagh were soon on the attack again and centre Hugh Guest had the nous to round the defence and score in the corner under huge pressure after Fethard did not yield to the route one approach. Going into the final minutes we were - in fairness to Fethard - slightly flattered to be leading by twenty-two points. Great credit is due to them and their never say die attitude as they battled their way in to score a try in the final play of the game. Final score 22-5 to Nenagh. Thanks to Fethard for a tough, sporting and fair game. They battled hard and never gave up as witnessed by their late try. We would also like to thank the parents who always help organise the serving of teas and refreshments in the clubhouse after the game.
Training as usual this Wednesday in Tyone from 7pm to 8.30pm as we continue with preparations for the next round of the East Munster Cup.
Match Panel: Joe Cooney, Jake Clarke, Jack Deane, Cathal Delaney, James Duff, Daniel Gleeson, Luke Gleeson, Hugh Guest, Liam King, James Meagher, Ruairi Moylan, Dylan Murphy, Eoin O’Meara, Anthony O’Donovan, David O’Sullivan, Sean Richardson, Cathal Ryan, Aaron Ryan, Shane Whelan, Jack White, Danny Wilkinson
Clanwilliam5-19 Under 13s
Nenagh Ormond Under 13s played Clanwillam on Sunday in Tipperary Town in a friendly. We had a small squad of 18 due to a lot of illness and some of our newer and younger players playing Clanwilliam in a mini style game beforehand. Nevertheless we were treated to a great team performance that saw all the things we have being working on in training brought to the match situation.
It is wonderful to be able to make a lot of changes from last week's league team as well as a few positional switches and have everything work with all players knowing their roles. We saw our lads willing to attack from anywhere on the field with great running and the ball in two hands. Many times after getting the ball from touchline to touchline we saw our backrow arrive to take a pop pass from a tackled winger and keep the move alive.
Our first try came from a pre rehearsed move at an attacking scrum on the Clanwilliam 22. No 8 John Brislane picked and broke right, drawing the wing forward, and passed to scrum half Niall O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan drew the winger and passed to Andrew Ferris for a well taken score. The rest of the first half saw us play some lovely rugby without scoring and just before half time, after a great break from Andrew, Clanwilliam turned over the ball around half way and a fast winger broke down the touch line and scored in the corner.
The second half saw Nenagh play all the rugby in the Clanwilliam half and we used aggressive defence as the first form of attack with every Clanwilliam player hit as soon as he received the ball. Adam Clear had what looked like a great score called back for a previous infringement and James Finn was very unlucky not to get a touchdown after a lovely little dink in behind with the dead ball line just beating him. Sonny Dower was also over after a 30 metre burst only to lose the ball over the line. Eventually the pressure told and Adam Clear and Andrew Ferris both scored under the posts. James Finn converted both.
It was great to see Cian White back after his recent accident and he carried really well and used his strength to win some great turnovers. This game proves that nobody in this squad can be assured of his starting place on the league team and only hard work at training and keeping up the standard that was set in this game will be good enough going forward. Well done lads!
Mini Blitz
Under 12s
Our Under 12 team travelled to Tipperary town on Sunday morning for an early kick off against Fermoy and Clanwilliam. We had perfect weather for rugby despite some heavy clouds gathering in the local hills. We played Fermoy in our opening match and were probably a little jetlagged from our trip down as Fermoy ran in three quick tries. We regrouped quickly, got stuck into rucks and tackles and the lads played some really good rugby.
Some strong running from Paddy Griffin, Sam O’Brien and Joe Shanahan got us into the right area of the field. From here on in we matched Fermoy in physicality and ball handling and our man of the match, Sam O’Brien, touched down in the corner for Nenagh Ormond. A well worked try by our lads with some tremendous work from our forwards, in particular Matty and Darragh.
In the second match against Clanwilliam we continued the good work and managed some excellent passages of play where we kept the ball in hand and worked hard for every yard. Shane Stanley at scrum half and Joseph Gleeson at out half were both brave in defence and provided great ball to our backs on the day. Jack O’Flaherty and Charlie Cavanagh made some good runs and kept us going in the right direction. Clanwilliam were too strong for us in the end but Nenagh Ormond showed that they were up for the challenge. A huge thanks to the parents for travelling down and supporting the lads.
Under 8s
NORFC Under 8’s travelled to Clanwilliam for their blitz on Sunday morning last. The weather was extremely mild and conditions were ideal for rugby. Sixteen players in total travelled for what proved to be a tough encounter against strong Clanwilliam and Fermoy opposition.
We played two eight-a-side games concurrently. Nenagh showed great determination and ability but were matched evenly. A superb display of rucking and mauling was evident from both sides. Some terrific tries were scored by a number of the Nenagh players – two of which were excellent intercept tries. Every player contributed with great forward drives as well as moving the ball wide to break through the opposition line. Also in defence some excellent tackles were made by our determined group of players.
Under 8 training will resume atBallymackey all weather Sunday next at 10.30am.
Under 7s
Our Under 7s played against Clanwilliam and Fermoy in lovely mild weather in Tipperary Town last Sunday. This was in stark contrast to their last fixture on 29th November when Storm Clodagh prevented Scarriff RFC Under7s from travelling over to Nenagh.
Two Nenagh teams played very well with players running into space and great passing. There was very little bunching of players and all teams were using the full width of the pitch which is good to see at this age level.
Thanks to parents and supporters for travelling to Tipperary Town where an enjoyable morning was had by all.
U7 players: Charlie Kennedy, Thomas Duffy, Scot Powell, Luke, Hugh Devaney, Dara Looney, Conor O'Brien, Cormack Kennedy, Gerard O'Looney, Charlie Talbot.
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