Ormond leave it late to claim bonus-point win

RUGBY: Energia All-Ireland League Division 2A Round 13

Nenagh Ormond 28

Old Crescent 7

Report: Shane Brophy at New Ormond Park

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: John Hayes (Nenagh Ormond)

SCORERS – Nenagh Ormond: Tries: Gleeson, Hayes (2), J O’Flaherty.

Convs: McMahon (3), Rowland (1)

Old Crescent: Try: O’Mahony. Conv: C Monaghan

Nenagh Ormond continued their terrific run of form by claiming a bonus-point win over Old Crescent in spikey local derby in the All-Ireland League on Saturday.

It stretches Nenagh’s unbeaten run to five games and with Queens University and Cashel both unexpectedly dropping points in their respective games, it sees Ormond climb into the playoff spots with just five games to go.

We will only know come the end of the regular season how important this bonus-point will be as it came late, very late, in the final play of the game as the outstanding John Hayes barrelled over from the back of the scrum to send the home support into raptures, securing all five points.

It didn’t look like coming despite the home side running in three tries inside the first eighteen minutes and it looked as if the fourth try and the bonus-point would be a mere formality but a combination of stiffened Old Crescent defence, plus sloppy play by Nenagh led to an element of frustration as the game went on before they finally got the try they craved late on.

A great help to Nenagh’s run of recent results has been the relative stability of their selection but the strength of their squad is impressive with Sean Frawley coming in for Jack O’Keeffe in this game while player/head coach Derek Corcoran made a rare start for Fionn McGibney, and the team wasn’t going to be weakened.

With the advantage of the strong breeze in the first half, Nenagh took just two minutes to get over for their first try after Old Crescent were forced to concede a drop-out from their own line and with Nenagh running the ball back, were patient inside the 22, sucking defenders in before they were left short out wide with Derek Corcoran kicking to David Gleeson for an easy score, converted by Conor McMahon.

The second try followed in the tenth minute with John Hayes touching down in the right corner, again after simple effective play by Nenagh whose carries were strong, even in the muddy conditions with their handling impressive. Conor McMahon added a difficult conversation for a 14-0 lead.

Nenagh’s back row were again to the fore with Hayes, Rob Buckley and John O’Flaherty dominant in all facets and it was O’Flaherty who crossed for Nenagh’s third try on eighteen minutes, with an initial break started by Hayes which put Old Crescent on the back foot. Nicky Irwin’s snipe came up just short before O’Flaherty touched down from close range with McMahon adding the errors.

The home side almost wrapped up the bonus point soon after when David Gleeson knocked on with open space in front of him on the wing. However, it appeared it would only be a matter of time when it would come particularly as Old Crescent rarely got out of their own half in the opening forty minutes, but they were defending better.

In the difficult conditions, Nenagh were going to find field-position difficult in the second half and for much of the second forty minutes, very little happened in the game, apart from a delicious side-step by David Gleeson on a run-back but John Healy knocked on in a promising position.

Old Crescent were competing hard but rarely threatened the Nenagh line and their only try in the 71st minute had a lot of fortune about it as Jack O’Mahony’s kick into the 22 bounced awkwardly and with Derek Corcoran losing his footing, O’Mahony managed to win the race to touch down with Cathal Monaghan adding the quick conversion for 21-7.

The Limerick side smelled a losing bonus-point, or more, in the time left but Nenagh defended well under considerable pressure and managed to clear their lines.

Nenagh rarely threated the Old Crescent line in the second half but with one final foray, Nicky Irwin, now on the wing for the injured Conor McMahon, broke up the left and kicked ahead forcing Old Crescent to concede a lineout ten metres out. From the lineout, Nenagh’s maul stalled and a scrum was awarded to the visitors, however, the Ormond eight produced a big hit to force Old Crescent to carry the ball behind their own line for another 5-metre scrum, this time for Nenagh. After initially being awarded a penalty, from another scrum they worked a simple play with John Hayes breaking off the back and barrelled over for the bonus-point try, with Josh Rowland adding the extras to complete a job well done for Nenagh Ormond who are riding the crest of serious momentum at the moment.

TEAMS – Nenagh Ormond: Josh Rowland (7); David Gleeson (7), Willie Coffey (6), John Healy (7), Conor McMahon (6); Derek Corcoran (7), Nicky Irwin (8); Mikey Doran (7), Dylan Murphy (6), Sean Frawley (6); Kevin O’Flaherty (7), Jake O’Kelly (8); Rob Buckley (7), John O’Flaherty (7), John Hayes (9).

Reps: Niall O’Gorman (6) for Frawley (HT); Patrick Scully (6) for Healy (65); Peter O’Connor (6) for Murphy (66); Cian Ryan (6) for McMahon (68); Evan Murphy (6) for Buckley (73).

Old Crescent: Jack O’Mahony (7); Brian Molloy (6), Stephen Kiely (6), Cathal Monaghan (7), Jason Aylward (6); Ronan McKenna (6), Michael O’Hanrahan (6); Casey Ebai (6), Joe Rickard (6), Alex Simpson (6); Kevin Doyle (7), Ciaran Heagney (6); John Toland (6), Oisin Toland (6), Sean Monaghan (6).

Reps: Cathal O’Reilly (6) for Simpson (50); Karl Madden (6) for S Monaghan (63); Alex Simpson for Ebai (63); Lee O’Grady (6) for Rickard (66); Dean O’Grady (6) for Heagney (66); Aaron Cosgrove (6) for O’Hanrahan (69).

Referee: Daniel Carson