By Schira Lane at St. Munchin’s College.
2025 opened with plenty of playing challenges for Clonmel RFC. As Munster fell under snow, ice and freezing fog for the bones of a week, the Firsts fixture, Round 10 of the All Ireland League, was indeed the only game to go ahead last weekend.
The squad trained hard over Christmas and all were ready and anxious to play. Thanks to the fine management and the use of the facilities of Clonmel Town Soccer Club, two indoor training sessions prepared them well. It wasn’t ideal that the familiar grounds of Bruff RFC were changed to the somewhat unfamiliar St. Munchin’s College in Limerick. However with both teams somewhat away now, Clonmel were in a good position to use this to their advantage.
Despite the snow still icy and packed in Clonmel, the St. Munchin’s grounds proved a greener pasture with perfect playing conditions: dry with no wind.
Clonmel started in trademark attacking form with solid work from the pack bringing them immediately up the pitch. Deep in Bruff territory some 10 minutes into the game, Andrew Daly broke from the back of the scrum but was high tackled and Clonmel won a penalty. Joe O’Connor kicked for touch and the attack continued with a maul into the try line. But we lost our bind and Bruff jackaled and drove us back down the park.
It was a similar scene for much of the first half. Although Clonmel weren’t awarded with penalties for high tackles which were plenty, our discipline seemed to cost us more than theirs. We gave away penalties and failed to contest in the line-out. Albert Fronek did well to stay on after several high and late hits and Bobby Doherty was taken off with a shoulder niggle middle of the first half. All in all, it was a somewhat frustrating 37 minutes as we failed to score.
However, our scrum was solid in the first half and we drove Bruff backwards on a number of occasions. Our lineout wasn’t as clean and it took till the second half be consistent with our jumping mojo. But the pack played well and all eight were hugely powerful in getting great ball out to the backs. Tom O’Dea, Jason Monua and Andrew Daly put in several big hits and in fine attacking form, work-horse Tom O’Dea was deserving to pick up his Man of the Match award. But several strong attacking moments fell away to nothing. And our discipline cost us 25 minutes in, when Bruff capitalised on a penalty with a converted try.
But Clonmel came back strong and there were some fine attacking moments by Michael Connellan at Full back, Albert Fronek on the wing and Henry Buttimer at outside centre. Indeed young Connellan had a very solid game throughout in his first outing at fullback and it was thrilling to see him back playing in what has always been his natural position. He has a natural tracking eye and little gets past him and he has a deceptive floating run that, with seemingly little effort, makes great ground from deep. On several occasion he stepped Bruff’s defence before sweetly off-loading with plenty of time and surety.
Andrew Daly carried well as did the pairing of Tony Cantwell and Gerrit Huisamen in the second row. We drove for the Bruff line and as the clock approached half-time we were finally awarded with a penalty for a high tackle and use of the elbow. Out-half Dylan Cadogan kicked for touch and after winning the line-out, Joe O’Connor went on the crash ball and scored. In a fine outing by the inside centre, he kicked the first of the afternoon’s four conversions before going in 7-7 at the break.
Historically this season, the second half has been challenging and we’ve lost great leads in the closing moments of some brilliant games. So it was particularly sweet to see Clonmel pull away a little further in the second half. It was a deserving Munster A Cap for young Bobby Doherty before Christmas and when he returned for some twenty minutes he put in fine tackles and ran well with the ball in hand. After several high hits, Bruff finally had a man sent to the bin. This combination, along with smart use of an impactful bench, helped us pull away in the end.
With a Clonmel scrum under the posts, Clonmel made no mistakes and Andrew Daly broke clean and passed to O’Connor who was running a super line. A powerful 12, O’Connor pumped the legs and went over for his second try with 53 minutes now on the clock. Indeed he nearly scored a hat-trick but despite not crossing the line himself, he kept the ball alive which developed into a great team try by Ben Everard under the posts. With things now solid with a 7-21 lead, Clonmel emptied the bench and it was a testament to all that the team pulled away further.
In a uneasy phase when Bruff attacked, there were some big hits by Liam Ryan and Jack Lane off the bench. And in true form of a Captain, Buttimer, who ever gives up, made a thrilling sprint over the line to deny Bruff the touchdown. It was this collective, along some fine off-loads by Lane, Connellan and Fronek that made the final try by Andrew Daly. With four out of four from the boot of Joe O’Connor, Clonmel finished it out 7-28.
The 5 points on the road now puts us in fifth position. But with little between the top teams, we are still in the play-off reckoning with 30 points. Dolphin, in fourth, are also on 30 and Enniscorthy and Belfast Harlequins are only marginally ahead on 32 and 33 respectively. So it is certainly all to play for as we head into Round 11 at home to Midleton next Saturday.
1st VX: Tim Nugent, Jason Monua, Ben Everard, Tony Cantwell, Gerrit Huisamen, Tom O’Dea, Bobby Doherty, Andrew Daly, Alex Sheehan, Dylan Cadogan, Freddie Davies, Joe O’Connor, Henry Buttimer (Capt.), Albert Fronek, Michael Connellan Subs: Liam Ryan, Tomas Stransky, Diarmuid Brannock, Jack Lane, Jack Walsh.