Munster Schools Senior Cup - Castletroy lose to CBC

Castletroy College fell to a heartbreaking 13-11 loss to CBC in Annacotty in the opening round of the Munster Schools Senior Cup.

The 2008 champions had a hotly fancied CBC side on the ropes in their Munster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final tie at a wet and stormy Annacotty.

But the gutsy Newtown students, who led 11-7 early in the third quarter, just didn’t quite have the wherewithal to deliver a knock-out blow to their Cork opponents over the remainder of a fiercely competitive tie.

To be fair, CBC were deserving winners in the end, two penalty goals from the boot of out-half Tomas Quinlan guiding them to a hard-earned victory. The Cork side included flanker Alex Penney, son of Munster coach Rob – who was in attendance at Thursday’s game – in their starting line-up.

The young Castletroy College side will get a second chance to reach the semi-finals later in the month when they face three-in-a-row seeking Rockwell College during the week of February 19-21.

Both sides were forced to play with 14 players for more than 40 minutes on Thursday as CBC hooker Devin Fitzgerald and Castletroy second-row, Jack O’Neill were red-carded following a 27th minute dust up involving upwards of 20 players from both sides. To be fair, any number of players from either side could have been dismissed following the flare-up which lasted for up to a minute.

Afterwards Castletroy forwards’ coach, John Staunton said: “It is both teams first Cup match. They players are pumped up and ready to go. Everyone ran in. I didn’t fully see what happened, but I didn’t think there was any malice in the row.”

Staunton said he was proud of his side’s display in a game very few had given them a chance of winning before kick-off.

Staunton added: “Castletroy is a funny place, really. When our backs are to the wall, like today, when no one gave us a chance, we perform.

“Most people thought we wouldn’t be within 20 points of Christians’. We knew ourselves that we had an awful lot of hard work done over the past number of months. We went out to win the match, but we coughed it up, as far as I am concerned.

“Going to Rockwell, we will go out there to do a job. We won’t show any fear of them. We will take them on and hopefully we will get a result.

“There is a real tightness and togetherness in the squad, guys playing for each other at the moment. If we can bring that into the game against Rockwell, improve our basics, I think we will be there or thereabouts.

“I am very proud of the lads, they put in a huge performance. We should have used the elements more in the second half.”

Castletroy bagged a fine first half try from winger Rhys Power, the five-pointer created by some slick handling in the wet conditions and an astute crossfield kick from Cian Malone.

Out-half Conor Linehan completed the rest of the scoring for Castletroy with two sweetly struck penalty goals.

SCORERS – Castletroy College: Rhys Joyce try, Conor Linehan two pens. CBC: Chris McAuliffe try, Tomas Quinlan two pens, one con.

CASTLETROY COLLEGE – Paul Butler; Cian Malone, Mark McCarthy, Killian Carroll, Rhys Joyce; Conor Linehan, Rory Cunningham; Conor Bartley, Liam Cronin, Adam Ivan-Clancy; Jack O’Neill, Patrick Bermingham; Ben Burns, Darragh Kennedy (Capt), Ronan Murphy. Replacements: Jack Murphy for Butler (injured, 20 mins), Eoghan Fitzgerald for Ivan-Clancy, Robert Larby for Bermingham (55 mins), Noel Clohessy for Kennedy (68 mins).

CBC – Chris McAuliffe; Rory Slater, Michael Clune, Joe Dowling, Gerry Ryan; Tomas Quinlan, Ryan Foley; Liam O’Connor, Devin Fitzgerald, Rory Burke; Sean Gill, Darragh Moloney; Alex Penney, Tadhg Arrigan, Adam McCarthy. Replacements: Vincent O’Brien for Penney (28 mins), Shane O’Hanlon for McCarthy (55 mins), Cillian Monohan for Quinlan (60 mins).

REFEREE – Tommy O’Donoghue (IRFU)