Young Munster Topple Terenure With McCarthy Scoring Twice

Young Munster recorded just their second win of the Energia All-Ireland League season, as Munster winger Shay McCarthy touched down twice in their 29-19 victory away to Terenure College.

ENERGIA ALL-IRELAND LEAGUE MEN’S DIVISION 1A:

Saturday, December 6 –

TERENURE COLLEGE 19 YOUNG MUNSTER 29, Lakelands Park
Scorers: Terenure College: Tries: Aran Egan 2, Caspar Gabriel; Cons: Caspar Gabriel 2
Young Munster: Tries: Shay McCarthy 2, Luke McCready, Hubert Gilvarry, Penalty try; Cons: Shane O’Leary, Pen try con
HT: Terenure College 0 Young Munster 22

Having fallen into Division 1A’s bottom two after UCD won at Lansdowne, Young Munster lifted themselves up to seventh in the table with the perfect response to last week’s gut-wrenching defeat to Cork Constitution.

With a strong wind behind them, Young Munster built a 22-0 half-time lead at Lakelands Park thanks to a snappy McCarthy brace and further scores from Australian centre Luke McCready and Hubert Gilvarry.

Ger Slattery’s side, who had lost their last two games, were outmuscling the hosts up front, aided by the presence of Munster’s Evan O’Connell, Conor Bartley, and Luke Murphy. Prop Kieran Ryan came on for the closing stages.

Terenure had the Leinster trio of Caspar Gabriel, John McKee, and Josh Kenny in their starting XV, but could not avoid their second successive loss, even being held scoreless during Stephen McLoughlin’s sin-binning.

It was a shrewd performance from the Cookies, who sealed the deal with a penalty try. Terenure were down to 13 men for a short period with Marcus Hanan and Chris Cosgrave both sin-binned, either side of the hour mark.

Carlos Spencer’s charges rallied with three late tries, two from Aran Egan and one from Gabriel. Their sustained pressure also saw O’Connell sin-binned, but they fell short of taking something tangible out of the game.

Recent Leinster debutant Kenny made his debut for Terenure, and made an early break from deep. Young Munster regained those lost metres with a subsequent maul turnover and good kicking.

The Cookies’ reliable lineout was the launchpad for an opening 14th minute score. They worked the ball across to the left where McCarthy, fed by Gilvarry, expertly spun out of a tackle from Max Russell to touch down.

Terenure had the field position to muster a quick-fire response, yet McCarthy made an important tackle on Russell – with an overlap to exploit – and McKee was held up by Ajae Hanson and Bailey Faloon from a five-metre tap penalty.

Munsters failed to profit from John Poland’s 50:22 kick, with Terenure captain Luke Clohessy collecting turnover ball. However, McCarthy completed his brace with a simple 25th-minute run-in, set up by Poland’s long pass during a penalty advantage.

Following Shane O’Leary’s well-struck conversion from out wide, the visitors hit another gear in attack. Kelvin Langan’s crisp kick receipt led to McCready bumping off a tackle and then finishing smartly from a McCarthy pass at the end of a pacy break.

Gabriel had been coming in for some treatment from Munsters, and a late tackle on the Leinster Academy talent saw McLoughlin carded. Terenure attacked out wide but left without points, as Kenny went off his feet at a ruck.

The Limerick men ended the opening half with their bonus point effort. O’Leary was wide with a monster penalty attempt, before Fionn Gibbons sucked in two defenders for top try scorer Gilvarry to run in his ninth try of the campaign, bouncing up out of a tackle to ground the ball.

Munsters’ defence stood firm on the resumption, despite the brief injury-enforced absence of captain Alan Kennedy. His second row partner, O’Connell, led some excellent maul defence, and wily scrum-half Poland was becoming more prominent as a sniping threat.

A McCready turnover penalty was the start of an indisciplined spell from Terenure, who lost prop Hanan to the bin for collapsing a maul. When Gilvarry injected pace into a move, and O’Leary looked destined to score in the right corner, Cosgrave’s no-arms tackle added to the hosts’ woes.

Referee Padraic Reidy awarded Young Munster a penalty try and sin-binned the ‘Nure winger. The Dubliners managed to get off the mark with 13 minutes remaining, getting the ball out to the left for Egan to dot down.

‘Nure suddenly had some wind in their sails, holding onto the momentum for out-half Gabriel to scramble over from his own quickly-taken penalty. He tagged on the extras for a 29-12 scoreline.

O’Connell’s yellow for a maul infringement preceded Egan’s clever finish from close range, with two minutes left. There was no denying Munsters, though, as they followed up on last season’s double over Terenure, which included March’s 20-12 triumph at Lakelands.

TIME LINE: 14 minutes – Young Munster try: Shay McCarthy – 0-5; conversion: missed by Shane O’Leary – 0-5; 25 mins – Young Munster try: Shay McCarthy – 0-10; conversion: Shane O’Leary – 0-12; 28 mins – Young Munster try: Luke McCready – 0-17; conversion: missed by Shane O’Leary – 0-17; 33 mins – Young Munster yellow card: Stephen McLoughin; 37 mins – Young Munster penalty: missed by Shane O’Leary – 0-17; 39 mins – Young Munster try: Hubert Gilvarry – 0-22; conversion: missed by Shane O’Leary – 0-22; Half-time – Terenure College 0 Young Munster 22; 59 mins – Terenure College yellow card: Marcus Hanan; 62 mins – Young Munster try: Penalty try & conversion – 0-29; Terenure College yellow card: Chris Cosgrave; 67 mins – Terenure College try: Aran Egan – 5-29; conversion: missed by Caspar Gabriel – 5-29; 70 mins – Terenure College try: Caspar Gabriel – 10-29; conversion: Caspar Gabriel – 12-29; 78 mins – Young Munster yellow card: Evan O’Connell; 80 mins – Terenure College try: Aran Egan – 17-29; conversion: Caspar Gabriel – 19-29; Full-time – Terenure College 19 Young Munster 29

TERENURE COLLEGE: Chris Cosgrave; Josh Kenny, Pa Ryan, Aran Egan, Adam La Grue; Caspar Gabriel, Will Reilly; Marcus Hanan, John McKee, Adam Tuite, Sean Rigney, Dave Maher, Harrison Brewer, Max Russell, Luke Clohessy (capt).

Replacements: Karl O’Brien, Luke Rigney, Darragh Brooks, Locky Wardick, Griffin Culver, Ed Kelly.

YOUNG MUNSTER: Shane O’Leary; Hubert Gilvarry, Fionn Gibbons, Luke McCready, Shay McCarthy; Kelvin Langan, John Poland; David Begley, Stephen McLoughlin, Conor Bartley, Alan Kennedy (capt), Evan O’Connell, Ajae Hanson, Bailey Faloon, Luke Murphy.

Replacements: Christian Foley, Kieran Ryan, Leo Langbridge, Jake O’Riordan, Harry Langbridge, Alex Flanagan Smith.

Referee: Padraic Reidy (IRFU)