Christians storm back against Pres to regain Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup

CBC 17 PBC 10 

After years of hurt and hunger inflicted by their cross-city rivals, CBC’s incredible 17-point comeback saw them crowned Munster Schools Senior Cup champions once more.

Trailing 10-0, the game turned on Darragh Prenter’s try-saving intervention to stop Pres from scoring a 49th-minute clincher.

With that swing in momentum, Charlie O’Shea and Leo O’Leary ran in tries to deliver a record-equalling 32nd title which ties their great rivals and denied them three in a row.

For the likes of half-backs Christopher Barrett and captain O’Shea, plus winger Alex O’Connell, they had gone through three consecutive final defeats against Pres to get here: the 2022 Junior Cup followed by the ‘23 and ‘24 Senior Cups. They unleashed all of that frustration into the final 20 minutes.

Both sides made changes for the final, with Craig Hughes’ recovery from a badly broken leg four months ago to start a feelgood factor for Christians.

They got away with a major let-off in the opening minutes. Daniel Murphy raced away to the corner but it took a while for the crowd’s celebrations to quieten as referee Tomás O’Sullivan called a forward pass against Alex Moloney.

Playing into a swirling wind, it took 12 minutes for Christians to gain territory inside the opposition half. But Pres are dangerous from all distances and they countered to strike for a 16th-minute breakthrough.

Bobby O’Callaghan, one of the new additions since the semi-final, made the initial 60-metre break. After losing some ground, Pres went wide to the winger again. This time, starting on halfway, there was no stopping him, even as he almost tripped approaching the line. He would exit the pitch distraught, however, due to injury before half-time.

Daniel Murphy’s conversion made it 7-0 and the goal-kicker added another three from an offside penalty as Pres began to get value for all their pressure.

The wind made line-outs difficult for Pres to make further progress. A Cian Corkery break led Christians into the 22 for the first time on the half-hour but, once again, they couldn’t build phases.

Heading into the second half with the wind, they were far from down and out, if only they could get their attack firing.

It didn’t happen for a while. Pres produced a textbook exit from their 22 with Ronan Byrd’s box kick pinning Christians back. After an advancing maul was illegally stopped, Pres reloaded and went again. But as Liam Hegarty looked to crash over, brilliant maul defence from Prenter held him up.

Having escaped a killer score, Christians came straight down the field. Daire O’Callaghan’s pace created the opportunity and Prenter appeared to have crossed but was prevented from grounding the ball by Rickey Barrett.

Christians piled on with two tap-and-go penalties before going wide through Corkery for O’Shea to score. The captain added the extras to cut the deficit to 10-7.

Prenter perhaps thought he’d pinched the lead score but O’Sullivan had whistled the play back for a knock-on.

From that scrum, though, O’Leary intercepted a telegraphed Pres move and raced away to score under the posts with 64 minutes on the clock. O’Shea made it 14-10.

He kicked a penalty for a seven-point cushion after their advancing maul was stopped and Hegarty sin-binned.

After an early pitch invasion, the field was cleared for another O’Shea penalty, which drifted wide. But they had done enough.

Scorers for CBC: Tries: C O’Shea, L O’Leary; Cons: C O’Shea 2; Pen: C O’Shea. 

PBC: Try: B O’Callaghan; Con: Daniel Murphy; Pen: Daniel Murphy.

CBC: C Cournane; D O’Callaghan, L O’Leary, C Corkery, A O’Connell (B McCarthy 56); C O’Shea (capt), C Barrett (Z Seymor 70); S Fitzpatrick, D Prenter, C Hughes (C Wallace 42); R O’Sullivan (H McCarthy 38), D Mac Coitir; C Galvin, J O’Callaghan, I Morton.

PBC: R Barrett; B O’Callaghan (E Dooley 33), A Moloney, J O’Leary (capt), Daniel Murphy; D Fitzgerald, R Byrd; F O’Sullivan (D Higgins 70), D Higgins (L Hegarty 35), D Sheehy (M Fitzgerald 65): O Dillon (M O’Toole 69), D Foley (S MacFarlane O'Shea 47); Denis Murphy, C Bohan, R MacFarlane O'Shea.

Referee: T O’Sullivan (MAR).