‘It’s Just Great To Get Over The Line’ – Cooney On Clontarf’s #EnergiaAIL Success

Clontarf were in a similar position in 2023 having topped the table, but fell at the final hurdle to a Terenure side inspired by Caolan Dooley who kicked a massive 30 points from the tee.

The 50-24 defeat was a crushing blow at the end of Cooney’s first senior season with Clontarf. A Grand Slam winner with the Ireland Under-20s, he joined the Leinster Academy that summer and recently signed his first senior contract with the province.

The 21-year-old centre has been on a exciting development path, playing for Emerging Ireland and gaining experience as a development player in Ireland’s Six Nations camp, either side of his Leinster debut away to Connacht earlier this season.

He has made four starts for Leo Cullen’s men since then, and combined brilliantly with current Ireland U-20 international Connor Fahy in Clontarf’s last three matches of the campaign, including the title decider at the Aviva Stadium.

You could visibly see how much winning the Division 1A trophy with ‘Tarf meant to Cooney afterwards, with his pulsating player-of-the-match performance seeing him score the opening try, set up two others, and save one at the other end by tackling Adam Maher into touch.

“Jeez, it’s unbelievable. It’s just great to get over the line, especially because we knew the match wouldn’t be easy. We knew it would be tight,” he said in the aftermath.

“Finals are never runaways, so it just means a bit more. It was great. It’s tough to rank it (personally) right now, I feel like it’s up there. Definitely.

“It’s hard, I just have to kind of think on it a bit now. I can’t really remember much of what happened, but yeah, it’s up there.”

Cooney played the full 80 minutes at Irish Rugby HQ, and his centre partnership with Fahy was hugely influential on the day. Between them they made 27 carries and 78.1 post-contact metres, beat seven defenders, threw four offloads, and landed 18 of their 19 tackle attempts.

Cooney’s own try, which broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute, was neatly crafted by the north Dubliners. Fahy took them to seven metres out before Cooney burst onto a Sam Owens pass, showing impressive strength to get the ball down on the line despite David Hyland’s tackle.

He was typically modest when reflecting on how he finished it, saying: “I just saw the ball get flung to the edge. They made a cover tackle and we were close to the line. I was like, you know, run a short line here.

“Hopefully catch a few blindside, a few of the Con players, and I saw the line, reached and just got it down luckily.”

The lead changed hands on four occasions with Andy Wood’s side missing out on a half-time lead. It was two tries apiece at that stage, Cork Con edging it 14-12 despite ‘Tarf having the lion’s share of possession and territory, and failing to turn a late onslaught into points.

The table toppers also could not capitalise on Ronán O’Sullivan’s yellow card, although an early second-half penalty from Conor Kelly gave them a one-point lead. Down the final stretch, their canny knack of winning close games this season emerged again.

“I felt we were definitely on top in the first half. You know, maybe we didn’t convert as much as we would have liked to. We went in a small bit behind, but I don’t think we let that get on our backs or anything.

“We came back with the same mindset. Maybe didn’t get as much ball in the second half, but that’s when our defence came out and really showed our game. We used that to get back on top and plucked a few scores.

“I think that how the game just went there is a lot similar to how a lot of the games went this season, just one-score wins.

“So I think that stood to us, and we had a lot of experience in the team as well, players who have been in finals before. I think that really helped us get over the line.”

Having experienced final heartbreak in 2023, it was all the sweeter for Cooney and his Clontarf team-mates to come out on top against last year’s winners, delivering a fourth All-Ireland League title for the Bulls, and a first since 2022.

It has certainly been a year to remember for the Castle Avenue crew. They started off by winning their first Leinster Senior Cup since 2015 and then swept their way to a first ever All-Ireland senior and Under-20 double for the club.

Just over two weeks ago, Clontarf’s U-20 team made history by winning their maiden Fraser McMullen Cup. Wood’s charges then held up their end of the bargain, and Cooney spoke with pride about the tight bonds between the club’s teams as they train together and support each other.

“You see a lot of the lads in the stands were 20s lads or lads from the J1s, who would have been training with us all year, putting as much effort as anyone on the pitch. It was just great to get over and celebrate with them because they won it as much as we did,” he added.

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