Draw For Munster U20s

Munster U20 and the Leicester Academy ended with honours even at the Leicester Academy Centre in Wigston, Leicester in Munster’s final friendly pre interprovincial series match.

Leicester Academy 30 Munster 30
Leicester Academy Grounds, Wigston. Fri 2nd September 2011

Played in near perfect conditions (24 degrees, not a cloud in the sky) the game produced some terrific attacking rugby from both sides.

Munster were quickly into their stride, when Shaun Horgan finished off a nice Munster drive involving both back and forwards. JJ Hanrahan added the points with a difficult conversion from the touchline. Soon after Hanrahan added a penalty to give Munster a 0 – 10 lead after 15 minutes. However, Leicester struck back almost immediately with a penalty and after a long drive into Munster territory they scored a converted try to bring the score level at 10 – 10 after 30 minutes.

The Munster side were back in front with Captain Miah Cronin scoring a try straight from the re-start. Hanrahan again added the points to restore Munster’s advantage with a 10 – 17 lead. On the stroke of half time Hanrahan added another penalty to leave the score 10 – 20 at half time.

Again as with the first half Munster started the stronger with some excellent hi tempo rugby, however the final pass let them down on a number of occasions which saw Munster waste a number of good try scoring opportunities.

As the second half wore on, the 24 degree heat began to take it’s toll on the Munster pack, and Leicester began to get a foothold in Munster territory and soon after the gap was closed to 20 – 20. Undeterred the Munster pack took the game to their illustrious opponents and after another free flowing move, Munster opened up the Leicester defence with Luke Cahill scoring from close range.

True to form Leicester came back again and scored a try in the 30th minute of the second half, which was followed by a penalty which brought the game into injury time level at 30 – 30. Perhaps justice was done when after 7 minutes of second half injury time played of an end to end game, Leicester had a penalty in front of the Munster posts which went wide. After what was a terrific game, it would have been very harsh on Munster had that last minute penalty gone over.

Next up is Leinster in the U20 Interprovincial championship in Musgrave Park on Fri 9th September with a 7.30pm kick off. All support are welcome and admission is free.

Munster U20s Squad: Garrett O’Suillebhain (UCC), Paul Curtis (St. Munchin’s College), Kevin Slater (UCC), JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohemian), Shaun Horgan (Rockwell College), Eamonn Mills (Dolphin), Brian Haugh (Young Munster), Niall Horan (Crescent Comp.), Brian Scott (UCC), Jake Considine (Young Munster), Sean McCarthy (Rockwell College), Shane Buckley (Garryowen), Ryan Murphy (Dolphin), Miah Cronin (Capt.) (Highfield), Luke Cahill (UCC). Replacements: Will Foley (PBC), Cian O’Donnell (Rockwell College), Richard Martin (UCC), Jack Donovan (Old Crescent), Cathal Gallagher (UCC), Neil Cronin (Garryowen), Rory Scannell (PBC), Seamus Glynn (PBC), Steve Dinan (PBC).