Junior Cup remains special for Nenagh Ormond

RUGBY: Bank of Ireland Munster Junior Cup Final Preview

By Thomas Conway

NENAGH ORMOND

V

CORK CONSTITUTION

Dooradoyle

Sunday, 3rd May

Kick-Off @ 3.30pm

There is a certain mystique about the Munster Junior Cup, a kind of an aura that few very sporting competitions have.

Some rugby die-hards even revere it above the Munster Senior Cup, the competition which Nenagh Ormond famously won for the first time in March 2025.

That might sound peculiar, but according to Martin Brislane, the Toomevara native who captained Nenagh to Junior Cup glory in the year 2000, the legendary commentator Jimmy Magee was once asked to name the most difficult competition to win in Irish sport? He had little hesitation in choosing the Junior Cup, largely because of the number of teams that take part from right across the province.

Nenagh Ormond have been part of the story of the tournament since its early days. The club have won it on five separate occasions, capturing their first title in 1931 before going on to subsequent successes in 1935 and then 1948. But it was their adventures at the beginning of this millennium that really captured the local imagination and elevated the club.

“The Junior Cup, in Nenagh, has a great history,” says Martin.

“Obviously we won it in 2000, with me as captain, bridging a 52-year gap. In 2003, Cork Con beat us in a final, down in Musgrave Park - Tomás O’Leary ran around me in the corner to score the winning try. Then in 2004 we beat Bruff in the final in Nenagh with Robbie Powell as captain.”

Martin recalls parading the trophy through the streets of Nenagh in the wake of that 2000 victory. Huge crowds turned out to welcome the team home. It really did mean something to the town. And it will mean something this time as well if Nenagh can get the better of Cork Con next Sunday afternoon in Dooradoyle, Limerick, the home of Garryowen.

Both the players and the supporters are hungry for silverware after what has been a challenging and at times a disheartening season at senior level. Martin, however, sees it somewhat differently. He acknowledges that Ormond’s experience in Division 1A was “a serious learning curve”, but he notes the fact that Nenagh have some exceptionally promising, young and emerging players.

“Fourteen of the players that started the semi-final against Kilfeacle last Sunday have 1A experience under their belts,” he reveals. That fact alone will stand to Nenagh, both in terms of Sunday’s game and in the long run. He concedes that Cork Con will be favourites but feels the underdog tag will suit Ormond.

“They won’t fear us, but we won’t fear them either,” Brislane said.

“This is no disrespect to Kilfeacle, but it will be easier to play against Cork Con, so look, it’s a two-horse race.”

His assessment is a fair one. Last Sunday’s semi-final was intense and attritional, while this final is likely to be more open and more fluid. Nenagh, however, have a secret weapon, or “an ace up their sleeve”, as Martin puts it.

Derek Corcoran was on the wing for the club’s last Junior Cup success in 2004. More than two decades later he is still flourishing, albeit in shorter bursts. He will almost certainly be sprung off the bench on Sunday and if he makes anything like the impact he made in the Senior Cup final thirteen months ago, Nenagh might well win this game.

In which case John Brislane, the baby whom Martin is holding in the accompanying picture, will follow in his father’s footsteps and hoist the Munster Junior Cup aloft. It would be the ultimate full-circle moment for the Toomevara father and son. And it would add to the mystique of a tournament that never ceases to enthral.