RUGBY: LEINSTER JUNIOR CUP FINALS:IT WAS a day of sunburn and mothers walking around the pitch with the kids while dads lived and breathed the most important day of their sporting lives.
Crosshaven, Monivea, Bruff and Dungannon in Dublin for the day. It was a parish day, a family day, a too much coke day, a blazer day, a team day, a finals day.
Sunshine-kissed Templeville Road became a big colourful picnic afternoon with dust kicking up from the pitch when the ball bounced and nicknames flying around the ground like missiles. Crosshaven and Monivea in the Irish Junior Cup final, both for the first time in their club history, put on the early matinee.
“Come on Murph. Put him in your pocket boy,” they howled at scrum time. Crosshaven’s big prop Brian Murphy duly obliged. But the kickers dominated, Liam Delaney for the Cork side until he went off just after the break with a twisted ankle.
It was a day of misery and joy for Delaney. The match ticked over 9-3, 9-6 to Crosshaven and midway through the second half 9-9, Gerard O’Connor levelling for Monivea. It was competitive and good natured. It was sometimes scrappy, sometimes inspired. It unfolded rather than took off and then at the end it exploded and we even found a hero.
Six minutes remaining and 9-9 with bodies on the deck by the Monivea sticks. Crosshaven pile in and ruck over the line. They all jump in the air. The referee squats. He can’t see anything for heads and limbs. There’s no TMO here. A scrum. A ruck. Another scrum. Ruck. Ruck. Ruck. A maul. It collapses on Monivea’s line. Crosshaven jump in the air again. The referee says scrum and then he says penalty. Up steps the secondrow. The secondrow? Paul Memery, secondrow, 34-years-old annexes the pill. The crowd erupts as it sails over. It’s the winner. Crosshaven score a try after that for 17-9, but that’s the winner.
“I play GAA and stuff like that so I like to see myself as a little bit of a kicker,” said the lock, wiping champagne from his head. “Unfortunately Liam (Delaney) went off. But Cian (fullback) was down injured as well. So I said every dog has its day, popped up and had a shot. I kicked a conversion there last week from the touch line against Ballincollig in the cup.
“There’s great strength and depth in this community. Crosshaven would be known as a sailing town but soccer clubs are coming up. So is the GAA. We’re just delighted now the rugby club is on the map in Ireland as well. We’re really happy as a club and as a community.”
That sentiment prevailed as Bruff, a group of south Limerick lads, set to work on Dungannon in the Bateman Cup final to continue the big day for big dreams theme. Bruff wouldn’t mind the artisans and the artists contrast as it was their own artisan scrum artistry that largely won them the match.
Dungannon had a sprinkling of emerging talent with professional ambitions in Conor Gaston, Paddy Jackson and former Ireland scrumhalf Kieran Campbell on the bench. But Bruff did what Bruff do, player and coach Peter Malone stealing one of the tries, Marcus Horan’s brother David the other in their 24-18 win and demonstration that the scrum can indeed be a thing of beauty. Is it the water in Bruff?
“They’re tough guys in south Limerick, you know a lot of big farmers there,” explained Malone. “It’s a big pack. They’re all local lads. Farmers? Country tradition? I couldn’t tell you what it is. But it’s working, it’s definitely working. We’ve big boys but still you’ve got to use it correctly and get the angles right.”
The day closed in the hazy heat, all the silverware this year heading west.
IRISH JUNIOR CUP Final– Crosshaven 17 (L Delaney 3 pens, P Memery pen, D O'Keefe try); Monivea 9 (G O'Connor 3 pens).
BATEMAN CUP Final– Bruff 24 (P Malone, D Horan tries, T Cahill 4 pens, con); Dungannon 18 (P Magee try, C Gaston try, M Lawton 2 pens, 2 cons).
