Schools' finals/PBC 6; CBC 3: PBC Cork bridged a nine-year gap by winning their 26th Munster Schools' Senior Cup following a hard-fought victory over rivals CBC at Musgrave Park yesterday.
It brought a welcome end to a series of three consecutive final defeats and Pres stand just one behind Christians.
A crowd of about 7,000 packed the venue for a game that was affected by a strong wind. Christians, playing with the wind, led only 3-0 at the interval. Pres made slightly better use of the elements on the resumption.
It was a forwards' dominated encounter with little or nothing in the way of back play. Pres won the toss and captain Sam Cronin offered Christians first use of the wind. Inspired by Richard McCarthy and Eamon Nugent in the lineout Pres took the game to their opponents and spent much of the half in Christians territory.
Scoring opportunities were thin on the ground, however. Full-back Scott Deasy had a strange experience with his first attempt at goal after 25 minutes. The Pres kicker didn't allow for the wind which whipped the ball well away from the posts. Christians tried to see it over the goal line to touch down for a 22 drop out only for the ball to hop into touch, handing Pres a lineout five metres out.
That came to nothing and it was Christians who jumped in front with a penalty from full-back Peter O'Sullivan four minutes before the interval.
A three-point was never going to be enough to cushion Christians for the expected Pres onslaught on the resumption. They levelled after 53 minutes following a Deasy penalty inside the 22 after backs and forwards combined to make a lot of ground in Pres's most enterprising attack.
The winning score came three minutes from the end of regulation time. Christians veered offside in midfield and Deasy held his nerve to land the all-important kick.
Cronin ensured the remainder of the game, which included seven minutes' injury-time, was played deep in opposition territory following a monster left-footed kick from the restart. Pres camped on the line but were denied by magnificent tackling. They squeezed over the line three times only to be held up on each occasion.
Still, it hardly mattered when referee George Clancy sounded the whistle for the last time to signal an important Pres triumph, much to the relief of all involved.
PBC: S Deasy; S Costigan, B Dennehy, T Kenneally, S McKeown; G Dunne, S Cronin (capt); J Carton, M O'Leary, N Burke; R McCarthy, R Allen; T Hennebry, E Nugent, J O'Driscoll. Replacement: C McGrath for Allen (59 mins).
CBC: P O'Sullivan; G Blower, I Dineen, F Chesne, K Doyle; A Coughlan, C Nolan; K O'Donoghue, D Nathan, R O'Neill; K Essex, R Gee; S O'Sullivan, D Keogh (capt), C Liston. Replacements: P Murphy for Gee (56 mins), J Noonan for Liston, L Melia for Chesne (both 67 mins).
Referee: G Clancy (MAR)
