Bandon far too good for Old Christians in the Munster Rugby Boys U18 cup final

Bandon 28

Old Christians 13

Daniel Coughlan inspired Bandon Rugby to a 28-13 victory over Old Christians in the Boys Clubs U18.5 Munster Cup final on Sunday afternoon at Virgin Media Park.

The fly-half scored 13 points, including a try, on a day that saw the club overcome an early deficit after their city rivals went ahead against the run of play.

Up until that point, Bandon were dominating possession but unable to take their chances.

Jack McNamara went closest to scoring during this spell inside the first five minutes, and the captain went away empty handed after the referee ruled there was no grounding when he burrowed through.

It was all one way traffic until Louis Murphy picked off a Brian Galvin line-out on the Old Christians’ 10 meter line. 

They broke and managed to win a scrum inside the Bandon 22 which led to a box kick finding Ben O’Connell on the left wing.

Mark O’Keeffe and Samuel Haberlin kept this drive alive, and Brian Cassin finished it to make it 5-0 in the 12th minute.

Cillian O’Flynn single handedly ignited the turnaround by snatching the ball and running the full-length of the pitch from his own 22. 

Bandon used this period in possession to set up Mark Slattery, and once again the club were frustrated by the lack of grounding cited by the referee.

Out of the goal-line drop out O’Flynn was able to charge through to make it 7-5 in the 25th minute and Daniel Coughlan added the extra points.

The place-kicker ran over during Bandon’s next period in possession and his second conversion increased their lead to 14-7 in just the 27th minute.

Old Christians rallied before the break and the best they could do was a penalty which O’Connell put over.

The game restarted at 14-10 in favour of Bandon and O’Connell reduced the gap to the bare minimum with a penalty in the 40th minute.

Bandon had two opportunities to give themselves breathing room, and on both occasions Sean Dooley and Eddie O’Sullivan left with nothing over issues with grounding and handling.

A penalty led to the third Bandon try with O’Connell kicking to the corner and McNamara got in to make it 21-13 in the 54th minute.

The fly-half’s conversion increased his tally for the day to 11 points, and that wasn’t the end to Bandon’s day.

They had one more try in them, and it was Dooley who got his name on the score-sheet before O’Connell converted once again.

Scorers for Bandon: D Coughlan 1 try 4 cons, C Flynn, J McNamara, and S Dooley 1 try.

Old Christians: B O’Connell 2 pens 1 con, B Cassin 1 try.

Bandon Rugby: E Galgey; G O’Shea, C O’Flynn, D O’Mahony, E O’Sullivan, D Coughlan, N O’Sullivan, J Aruste-Desmond, B Galvin, L O’Sullivan, S Dooley, S Brady, M Slattery, C Callanan, J McNamara.

Subs: A Barry for Galvin (HT); D Hyde for Slattery (HT); J Brennan for Brady (HT), A O’Regan for Aruste-Desmond (HT), A Lane for Galgey (60).

Old Christians: L Kelleher; S Haberlin, C Roche, S O’Regan, M O’Keeffe, B O’Connell, L Murphy, M White, W Maxwell, B Cassin, C Doherty, C Sneddon, R Cambridge, C O’Shea, R O’Farrell.

Subs: D O’Donnabhain for White (50); O’Connor for Murphy (57), F Porta for O’Keeffe (60).

Referee: Pierce Ryan.