Captain Darragh O’Brien leads Old Crescent off the field after convincing 40-19 win over Sundays Well in Rosbrien last Friday night!
Old Crescent senior side resumed their UBL campaign with a fixture against Sundays Well in Rosbrien last Friday evening. There was a good attendance on a cold brisk night in Rosbrien.
Sundays Well got off to the better start and drove a maul close to the Crescent line from which they touched down for a try with five minutes gone. The convert attempt was missed.
The Well knocked on from the restart allowing Old Crescent to apply pressure near their 22. Crescent recycled the ball and created space with some crisp passing and excellent handling as Ronan McKenna touched down and converted his own score on six minutes.
Old Crescent declined an opportunity to take a kick from under the posts and eventually our attack was repelled after a knock-on helped relieve pressure. The Well did have flourishes in attack and after some strong carrying from inside the Crescent half their winger touched down for a try which they converted to lead by 12 points to 7 on the half hour.
Old Crescent launched another attack and we began to dominate in the scrum. After a patient build up, Val McDermott was able to break through for a try out wide. The convert was kissed leaving the half time score at 12 points apiece.
Shortly after the restart, Crescent’s strong scrum yielded a penalty which we kicked to the corner. From the resulting powerful driving maul to the Well line, Alex Simpson touched down close in and Ronan added the convert to put us 19 points to 12 in front.
A few minutes later, another strong Crescent scrum gave our back-line the chance to run and the move was finished by Brian Tuohy touching down and and Ronan again adding the convert to extend our lead to 26 points to12 in a matter of minutes.
Sundays Well tried hard to get on terms and their efforts were rewarded on the hour with a converted try to narrow our lead to 7 points. However, the game was put beyond doubt a few minutes later when the Crescent scrum powered over the Well line for a penalty try to extend our lead to 33 points to 19 with a quarter of an hour remaining.
The icing was put on the cake in the final minutes by Ronan McKenna with a superb individual counter attacking try which he also converted. Final score, Old Crescent 40 Sunday Well 19. It was great to see that the Christmas festivities, which included the wedding of last year’s captain, Cathal O’Reilly (Congratulations, Cathal and Trish!) did nothing to halt our unbeaten run in the UBL.
Our Seconds played a friendly against top junior side Clonmel in a cold and windy Rosbrien last Saturday. The visitors won comfortably but it was a good work out for our guys helping to clear the holiday cobwebs and get ready for our opening Munster Junior Cup match against Thurles next Sunday in Rosbrien.
Old Crescent’s Thirds had a big 36-0 win over Newport in a Gleeson League clash also in Rosbrien last Saturday afternoon. Crescent scorers were Robbie Walker try, Sean ‘Rusty’ Ryan try, Simon Ryan try, John ‘just back from Canada’ Noonan try, Tim Maloney try, and Ian McNamara 4 conversions and a penalty. Man of the Match was Killian O’Mahony.
Our Under 20’s teamed up with Nenagh Ormond for a friendly against Ul Bohemians last Saturday. The game ended in a draw and was a good after Christmas workout for our U20’s.
In fixtures next weekend, our Third’s travel to Coonagh to take on Shannon in a Gleeson League match, kicking off at 2.30pm next Saturday afternoon. Our Second’s make their debut in the 2018 Munster Junior Cup competition when they take on Thurles RFC at home in Rosbrien at 1.00pm next Sunday afternoon. We hope to see plenty of support for our team in Rosbrien next Sunday.
Finally, in congratulating our former captain and senior player Cathal O’Reilly on his marriage over the Christmas period, we must also extend our congratulations to our Chairman of Rugby, Tommy Pratt, and to his wife Caitriona, on the birth of their second son Henry. Congratulations, guys!
