Clinical Old Crescent ease past Clonmel to book Munster Senior Cup final place

OLD Crescent RFC ended a 16-year wait for a Bank of Ireland Munster Senior Challenge Cup final appearance on Thursday night, thanks to an impressive 36-5 semi-final victory over Clonmel at Takumi Park, Rosbrien.

Clonmel dominated the opening half hour but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard. A disallowed try was sandwiched by a brace of missed penalties by Josef O’Connor.

The visitors thought they broke the deadlock ten minutes in when Luke Hogan touched down. However, his effort was chalked off for a double movement.

While Old Crescent sit in seventh place in Division 2A of the All-Ireland League their semi-final opponents occupy fourth spot in Division 2B.

The Limerick side had progressed to the semi-finals after winning Group Four, thanks to wins over Dolphin RFC and Midleton RFC.

Home side Old Crescent then took the lead on 32 minutes when Joe McEnery registered a try. Ronan McKenna was off target with the conversion, but the hosts still led 5-0 at half-time.

McKenna slotted over a 22-metre penalty ten minutes into the second half before captain Karl Madden added a try on 70 minutes as Crescent tightened their grip on the game. The reliable McKenna slotted over the touchline conversion for good measure as the hosts now led 15-0.

Clonmel replied with an unconverted try two minutes later as Dean Slattery crossed the whitewash following a marauding run from Luke Hogan.

However, four minutes from time, Old Crescent moved 17 points clear as Ben Davey touched down following a superb penetrating run, with McKenna landed the conversion.

Old Crescent cemented their place in the decider as Jamie Duggan crowned an impressive victory in style for the Limerick side with two tries in the dying minutes.

Sixty seconds from time, the Old Crescent out-half intercepted possession before scoring a breakaway try.

Then, deep into injury time, he added another following a powerful maul. McKenna nailed the conversion on both occasions resulting in a convincing victory.

Old Crescent will now face either Young Munster or Nenagh Ormond in the Munster Senior Cup final. Those two sides meet in the second semi-final on Friday night at Clifford Park, 8pm.

OLD CRESCENT: Ronan McKenna; Jayson Aylward, Joe McEnery, Werner Hoffman, Jed O’Dwyer; Jamie Duggan, Gary Fitzgerald; Joe Rickard, Niall Hardiman, Jake Considine; John Toland, Yasin Browne; Oisin Toland, Karl Madden (Capt), John Lyons. Replacements: Darragh O’Brien, Denis O’Dwyer, Casey Tanyi, Sean Monaghan, James McKeogh, Ciaran Cusack, Ben Davey.

CLONMEL RFC: Jack Walsh; Luke Hogan, Michael Connellan, Henry Buttimer (Capt), Albert Fronek; Josef O’Connor, Ben O’Dwyer; Tomas Stransky, Brandon Delicato, Ben Everard; Diarmuid Brannock, Tom O’Dea; Brian O’Dea, Masuku Mbongeni, Gerrit Huisamen. Replacements: Liam Ryan, Jason Monua, Billy Coffey, Tony Cantwell, Harry Lane, Alex Sheehan, Dean Slattery.

REFEREE: Kevin Coffey