J3 Moran Cup Final 2015

Terenure College RFC J3s V St Mary’s College RFC J3s

9 32

LB Donnybrook Stadium

17th April 2015.

Moran Cup Final

The soul of Saint Marys

Entering Donnybrook, one could feel the venerable history; the dream arena of every schoolboy and senior Leinster player of old. Once again the venue and the game gave the contrast of the old and the new. Leinster has developed a superb synthetic pitch and surrounds, the contrasts are striking.

St Marys’ team too was a contrasting melange of mature and novice. This game and the teams spoke of everything that is good about club rugby, generally, and our club in particular. At one time most senior players played down the ranks, seldom now. Therefore it was marvellous to have three former club captains and two of them club internationals, and a couple of experienced senior players of old merging with young keen junior players and how well it worked. This was topped off with manager and coach,who were both top class former senior props; so theatre was guaranteed

It has to be said that in keeping with their tradition, Nure never stopped trying with spirit and determination. However,in a most sporting game, Marys held all the aces, power, experience and set-piece dominance. Terenure had to rely on kicks to stay in touch, which they did until early in the second half. They scored three penalties in total, while Marys scored five tries, a penalty and two conversions. Interestingly, speaking of power, two of the tries were mauled and one of Large Logie’s was a crash ball. Others to score tries were Peter Timmons, Ciaran Lennon, and young Chunky Sean Carroll. Alan Shirley was the successful kicker of a penalty and two conversions.

The first half was interesting but a little staccato, however the second was high tempo skilful and excitingly entertaining; a great credit to all. The small but fervent crowd got behind their teams and added to the emotions of the game and was reminder of how important these competitions are to clubs.

A word of well done to Davy (Dougal) Lyons who has been at the club playing for over 20 years and on the wing he had a fine game and made a lovely break which led to an important try by Ciaran (Lenso) Lennon, who also made a major contribution with a very fine game.

Captain Cormac Treacy led his men with true spirit and made several good breaks. Hugh Hogan who played at 12 was heavily involved and contributed excellently, as did Gareth (Logie) Logan, leading from the front and using his impressive bulk, experience and skill to super effect. Alan Shirley has been at the club a little while too and has played at every level always with distinction and commitment and once again at 10 he was highly dependable, with rocket like tackles and shrewd distribution and he was well served by Alan McPhillips. The game could not be reported without special mention of a special person and player, Marvel Man Phillip Brophy who was outstanding, leading, exhorting, tackling as though his world depended on it and running the backline with Alan, he is a supreme competitor and clubman. One of our greatest ever and it was as ever a pleasure to watch him play.

So congratulations to Cormac and all his commendable team, Dave and Tom and of course our president Brian Grimson, who with Leinster president John Glackin smilingly presented the trophy and medals to the team.

So much can be taken from this cup win and heraldic credit must be given to driven Patrick Crawford, Director of Junior Rugby and soon to take over as DoR. He and his committee have worked endlessly and under great difficulty at times, all season. We owe Pat and his crew great thanks.

D O’Brien

Team with rolling substitutions

15, Craig Morrin, 14 Cormac Treacy (Captain), 13 Philip Brophy, 12 Hugh Hogan, 11 Davy Lyons, 10 Alan Shirley, 9 Alan Mc Phillips, 8 Stephen Muldowney, 7 Ciaran Lennon, 6 David Kilbride, 5 Gareth Logan, 4 Cormac Flynn, 3 Zeeshan Ali 2 Tom Meredith, 1 Jamie MacRae, 16 Sean Carroll, 17 - Gareth Hennessy, 18 - Conor Hurley, 19 - Caolan Smith, 20 - Peter Timmons, 21 - John Andrecetti.