Players Preview | Bank Of Ireland Munster Senior Challenge Cup Final

The Bank of Ireland Munster Senior Challenge Cup final gets underway on Sunday at Thomond Park as Nenagh Ormond and Old Crescent meet to decide who will be crowned this season’s winners (2:30pm).

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We recently spoke to Nenagh Ormond captain Kevin O’Flaherty and Old Crescent captain Karl Madden to get their views ahead of Sunday’s showdown in Thomond Park.

Kevin O’Flaherty – Nenagh Ormond

“It’s going to be a tough, physical battle as it has been in past meetings with Old Crescent. Both teams are looking to make history which should make for an exciting game of rugby.”

“It’s a very exciting time for the club. To be able to mix it with the best in Munster shows the progress we are making. We set our goals at the start of the year and going on a Cup run was one of those.”

“After getting to the final three years ago it was unknown territory to us and we really enjoyed the experience. We are under no illusion that this Sunday will be a hard fought battle but we are hoping that the experience of three years ago and plying our trade in division 1B stands to us and that we can come out on the right side of the result Sunday.”

“Just over 20 years ago the club won the junior cup and we have grown from strength to strength in recent years. To be crowned champions would be an immensely proud moment for everyone involved as we would be adding our name to the history books.”

“We have the whole community behind us and their support has been incredible the past few years. We are hoping that we can reward their support by bringing the Senior Cup to Nenagh.”

Karl Madden – Old Crescent RFC

“Preparations have been going really well. We’ve got a really good mix of young lads on the team that have come through the underage system and then we have some older heads that have been there for a while as well, so it’s a really good mix and has been going really well.”

“The Munster Senior Challenge Cup is never an easy thing to come through and we had a couple of tough games to start it off. We had Dolphin first who we would have played numerous times in the last couple of years and then we had Clonmel in the semi-final and they’re going really well in 2C so it was definitely a tough run. It is never an easy feat to get to a final but we are delighted to be in it.

“We know Nenagh well in terms of we’ve played them a lot, we were both in 2A together and look they’ve gone on to do great things. They got promoted last year and they’re doing really well in 1B as well. So it won’t be uncharted waters but we are excited to play them again.”

“It is tough to put into words how much it would really mean to win this weekend. This is the fourth time Old Crescent have ever been in the final and the last time we were in the final in 2009 our Director Of Rugby Eugene McGovern was playing. We are a really tight knit club so it would really just mean so much to everyone if we lift the cup on Sunday”