We advanced to the 5th round of the Munster Junior cup lastSunday, with a hard earned victory over Cobh Pirates on a scoreline of 27-6.
Cobh started very brightly and went 3 nil up after only 3minutes with a fine penalty from their no.10. We came straight back at them andafter a great driving maul by the pack from a line out, the ball was moved outto the back and Declan Brown took a great line to score under the posts. BrianHaugh added the extra to leave us 7-3 in front after 11 minutes.
The home side reduced the lead to one point after 18minutes through another penalty from their outhalf. From this point on we goton top in the set piece and after 24 minutes we won a penalty from a scrum ontheir 10 metre line and Brian Haugh kicked a fine penalty to put us 10-6 ahead.Brian kick his second penalty just on half time when again our front row ofDonal Murphy, Cathal O’Connor and Hugh McGrath forced a penalty from a scrum.We went into the break leading 13-6.
We started the second half like we finished the first andscored our second try after 48 minutes when our scrum drove their scrum backover their own line with our number 8 Jake Considine getting the touch down.Brian Haugh added the easy two points to extend our lead to 14 points.
We were well on top at this stage and it came as no surprisewhen we scored our 3rd try on 65 minutes through Shane O’Leary after greatinterplay between the forwards and backs. Brian Haugh kicked the conversion toput us 21 points ahead.
Cobh came straight back at us and only for good defence byDeclan Bannon, Owen Tarrant and co, Cobh would certainly have scored a try. Weweathered the Cobh comeback and finished the game strong with the last playinside the Cobh 22.
A good start to the Junior Cup, with a very good mixture ofyouth and experience, with the likes of club captain Shane O’ Neill and DarraghPayne using all of their experience in helping the six players who werestarting their first junior cup game.
Final score; Cobh Pirates 6 – 27 Young Munster 27
