Munster Start Junior Inter Pro’ With A Win

Ben Martin was the star of Munster’s opening Junior Interprovincial tie against Leinster at Grove Island.

Munster 31, Leinster 27.
Out half Ben Martin put in a man of the match performance scoring twenty one points in total and he didn’t have to wait long to get his name on the scoreboard. With just one minute played he split the posts with a well struck drop goal giving the home side an early advantage.

Leinster were level on ten minutes when Coolmine out half Donal Crotty struck a penalty.

Both sides missed penalty chances before Kanturk’s top try scorer Luke McCabe put Munster back in front. Munster were made to work hard at the breakdown to retain possession in their opponents Twenty Two and when given the chance McCabe carried through the contact five meters out and crashed over with two Leinster tacklers in tow for an unconverted try.

Leinster rallied immediately and centre Andrew Turner split the covering defence to run in under the posts, Crotty added the extras giving Leinster a slight lead. Another Leinster try came from the restart Ross Doyle putting the Blues seven points ahead of the home side which went unconverted.

With five minutes remaining in the first half Leinster captain was sent to the bin. Martin closed the gap with the resulting penalty.

From the restart Munster were back on the attack, fly half Martin shook the first tackler on the halfway and carried deep into the Leinster Twenty Two before off loading to Stephen Burke. The Galbally man was held up just short but Martin was back in the thick of it again and put Kevin Allen of Cobh through the gap for Munster’s second try to leave it 16-15 at half time.

After the half time break Munster were dominating across the pitch but it took twenty minutes for a score, Martin knocked over another penalty and five minutes later he added to his day’s tally. Stuart Lee carried from the back of a lineout on the halfway line and offered a superb offload to Martin who stepped through the three Leinster defenders and sauntered under the posts and converted.

This proved to be the vital score. Martin added a second try to give Munster a sixteen point lead.

Leinster’s late rally produced two tries to put them in reach but Munster fronted up and held firm closing out a thrilling game.

The squad travel to Coleraine next weekend to take on Ulster.

Munster: Conor Cooney (Clonmel); Rob Carroll (Clonmel), Eoin Duffy (Waterpark), Luke McCabe (Kanturk), Greg Carroll (Clonmel); Ben Martin (Clonmel), Stuart Lee (Old Christians); Barry Kelly (St. Mary’s), Mike Cronin (Castleisland), Brian O’Neill (Kanturk); Stephen Burke (Galbally), Ruari O’Donnell (St. Mary’s); Brian Downey (St. Mary’s), Kevin Allen (Cobh Pirates), Dan McCabe (Kanturk).
Replacements: Gareth Mulcahy (Clonmel), Patrick Ryan (St Senan’s), Declan Moloney (Newcastle West), Barra Buckley (Kanturk), Dave O’Donoghue (Waterpark), Mark Chandler (Cobh Pirates), Daragh Meade (Kanturk), Phillipe Trippier (Kanturk).
Leinster: Niall O’Donoghue; Dave Hogan, Andrew Turner, Ken Copeland, Ross Doyle; Donal Crotty, TC Campbell; Benny Gilligan, Johnny Lee, Ger Molloy; Niall Smullen, Victor Ryan; Harley Murray, Ben Horan, Adrian Hanley.
Replacements: Cathal Feighery, Simon O’Shea, Ivor Deverill, Barry Stewart, Rory Gleeson, Dennis Higgins, Chris Jebb.

Fixtures 2013 Junior Interprovincial Series
Ulster v Munster – Coleraine: May 4th – 2:30pm
Connacht v Munster – Ballinasloe: May 11th – 2:30pm