Preview | Bank Of Ireland Munster Senior Challenge Cup Final

Thursday will be a historic day for both clubs. Most notably Nenagh Ormond who are making their first ever appearance in the Bank of Ireland Munster Senior Challenge Cup Final and will be the first Tipperary based team to compete in the final since Rockwell College over a century ago.

For Young Munster, they made their first ever successful defence of the trophy last season and will be bidding to make it three successes in a row.

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Nenagh Ormond go into Thursday’s game unbeaten since the New Year and are making a strong push for promotion from Division 2A of the Energia AIL.

They opened their Senior Cup campaign by defeating fellow Division 2A side Old Crescent 29-10. It was a tight first half with Nenagh establishing a 10-0 lead with tries by Dylan Murphy and a conversion and penalty by James Finn. Ronan McKenna pegged them back with all of Crescent’s scores. The Tipperary club pulled away with a dominant second-half display courtesy of tries by Jack O’Keeffe, Willie Coffey, and John Healy.

This set up a quarter-final away to Garryowen. Nenagh won 28-23 although it was a far more convincing win than the score suggests. Ormond took control of the game scoring four converted tries to take a 28-3 lead. David Gleeson, John O’Flaherty, Coffey and Niall O’Gorman all got over the line with Finn converting all of them. While Garryowen did fight back, time ran out and Nenagh deservedly progressed.

The semi-final at home to Highfield saw Nenagh produce an outstanding display to win 28-5. Coffey maintained his record of scoring a try in each round, with Josh Rowland also touching down. Patrick Scully kicked a conversion and penalty before the break before converting his own try after the interval. Two penalties by Conor O’Brien wrapped up the win.

Young Munster had one less game to reach this stage as they received a walkover in the first round. The second round encounter saw them travel down to South Tipperary to take on Division 2B side Clonmel. The gulf in class and quality told and the Cookies were relentless, giving out an early message that they were eager to retain this trophy once more.

Jack Harrington and Stephen Lyons each ran in for a hat-trick of tries. There were four other try scorers with Conor Bartley, Conor O’Shaughnessy, Dan Walsh, and Peter Hickey also touching down. Evan Cusack and Cian Casey split the kicking duties to help their side secure a 67-7 win.

The semi-final pitted Munster’s against arch-rivals Cork Constitution. Tom Clifford Park hosted a tight compelling encounter with Con’ eager to avoid being eliminated by Young Munster for the third time in a row.

With a vociferous home crowd behind them, tries by Stephen Lyons and Bailey Faloon, along with an Evan Cusack penalty established a 13-6 half-time lead for the hosts.

The Limerick side needed to hold their nerve amidst a Con’ onslaught and Cusack penalties either side of a Billy Crowley try for Con’ was enough to see the Cookies emerge victorious.

Click here to buy tickets for the Bank of Ireland Munster Senior Challenge Cup final.