Young Munster power wears down improved Ormond

RUGBY: Energia All-Ireland League Division 2A Round 10

Nenagh Ormond 31

Young Munster 43

Report: Thomas Conway at New Ormond Park

Photos: Odhran Ducie

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: Charlie O’Doherty (Nenagh Ormond)

SCORERS – Nenagh Ormond: Tries - Coffey (2), O’Doherty, Kerr. Cons - O’Doherty (4). Pen - O’Doherty (1)

Young Munster: Tries - O’Reilly, McCready, Hanson, McLoughlin, Pepper, O’Riordan. Cons - O’Leary (5). Pen - O’Leary (1).

Fortune favours the brave, and if Nenagh Ormond keep playing like this, more points will surely flow their way in the coming weeks.

Ultimately, the record books will record another defeat last Saturday, a twelve-point beating which Young Munster inflicted via two late tries, but the manner of this performance differed from previous occasions in both style and substance.

Nenagh were a world apart from the forlorn troop of players which trudged off the field at Tom Clifford Park in the reverse fixture on December 13th last. Derek Corcoran’s outfit were very obviously stung by that rather ignominious 47-point drubbing, and they were eager to atone.

They did so, turning the page on the latter half of 2025 and delivering a courageous attacking performance which could, and perhaps should, have earned them their first victory in Division 1A of the AIL. Instead, they faded in the final quarter and walked away with only a bonus point, but at least it was something.

In their match preview on the IRFU website, Irish Rugby produced an alarming statistic: of the 50 tries Nenagh had conceded prior to Saturday, 35 had arrived in the final quarter of their games. Ormond’s tendency to disintegrate in the second half has been an enduring source of frustration, and while there was no collapse here, they were finally undone by a brace of Young Munster tries in the 70th and 78th minutes.

Still, the positives trumped the negatives. The Tipperary side attacked the game from the outset, surging into a 14-0 lead within the first eight minutes.

In his new position at number 8, Willie Coffey made his mark two minutes in, bursting through a central channel and touching down near the posts. Charlie O’Doherty’s first task was to clip over an easy conversion.

Minutes later, O’Doherty would add Nenagh’s second try, latching onto the end of a well-executed cross-field move which emanated from a lineout. He kicked sumptuously in the game, launching several thunderbolts from deep while slotting four conversions and a penalty.

His only real mistake came in the fourteenth minute. Oran O’Reilly had just opened the Cookies’ account with an eleventh minute try and Young Munster sensed a route back into the game. O’Doherty collected a kick from deep and errantly opted to run with the ball rather than launch it up field. Within metres he was greeted by Young Munster’s star attraction, Ballina native Shane O’Leary, who overturned possession with a tackle and left Nenagh scrambling. Seconds later, Luke McCready was diving over in the corner for the Limerick side’s second try.

But Nenagh responded, Willie Coffey bustling over once again in the nineteenth minute for a converted try, pushing Nenagh into a 21-12 lead.

An eventful first quarter which had furnished five tries and no shortage of action was succeeded by an equally absorbing second twenty minutes in which Young Munster seized the momentum.

An Ajae Hanson try was partly cancelled out by an O’Doherty penalty, but the Cookies would assume the lead on 31 minutes through hooker Stephen McLoughlin. Shane O’Leary arrowed over the conversion and the score remained static until the break, Nenagh trailing 24-26.

End-to-end contest

This was a high-tempo, end-to-end contest which was probably elevated by the presence of several professional players. The decision by Munster head coach Clayton McMillan to allow players outside of his matchday 23 to compete in the AIL with their clubs has benefitted the competition enormously, and should be commended.

While Nenagh’s Seán O’Brien did not score, the centre added panache to the Nenagh attack. The same could be said for Young Munster’s Luke Murphy and Shay McCarthy, also Munster players while Tony Butler came on in the second half. And, of course, the aforementioned O’Leary, a Canadian international was his usual dynamic self.

There was a moment in the second half where Nenagh should really have moved to kill the contest. Minutes after Young Munster’s Bailey Faloon had been sent to the sin-bin, O’Doherty and Luke Kerr combined in a gorgeous move which ended with the latter steaming over the try-line. The conversion put Nenagh five points up, 31-26, launching them into pole position.

But they failed to capitalise, and the final ten minutes were an agonising watch. Oisín Pepper, who was added to the Young Munster side in the absence of star winger Hubert Gilvarry, secured the visitor’s fifth try and O’Leary nudged them in front with the conversion.

Although Nenagh tried, they could not arrest the Cookies’ momentum in those last few minutes. Jake O’Riordan sealed victory with another try in minute 78, before O’Leary sent the final kick of the game, a penalty, soaring through the posts and towards the town beyond.

TEAMS - Nenagh Ormond: Davy Gleeson (7), Patrick Scully (7), Seán O’Brien (7), Angus Blackmore (7), Fionn Higgins (7), Charlie O’Doherty (8), Luke Kerr (8); Mikey Doran (7), Dylan Murphy (7), Matthew Burke (6), Kevin Seymour (7), Kevin O’Flaherty (7), John O’Flaherty (7), Rob Buckley (7), Willie Coffey (8).

Reps: Seán Frawley (7) for Burke (38); Fionn O’Meara (6) for K O’Flaherty (58); Nicky Irwin (7) for Kerr (58); Robbie Tynan (6) for O’Brien (58 inj); Mateo Sentous (6) for Buckley (62); Matthew Burke for Doran (65); Mikey Doran for Murphy (67); James Finn (6) for O’Doherty (72); Kevin O’Flaherty for Seymour (75).

Young Munster: Shane O’Leary (8), Oisín Pepper (8), Fionn Gibbons (7), Luke McCready (7), Shay McCarthy (7), Kevin Langan (7), Jake O’Riordan (7); David Begley (7), Stephen McLoughlin (7), Kieran Ryan (6), Alan Kennedy (7), Oran O’Reilly (8), Ajae Hanson (7), Bailey Faloon (6), Luke Murphy (8).

Reps: James Horrigan (7) for O’Reilly (53); Tony Butler (6) for Langan (58); Leo Langbridge for Faloon (72); Ben Everard (7) for Ryan (78).

Referee: Jonathan Erskine.