Pinergy Munster Schools Senior Cup final

CBC 17

PBC 10

Stephen Barry reports from Virgin Media Park

AFTER YEARS OF hurt and hunger inflicted by their cross-city rivals, Christian Brothers College’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 Presentation Brothers College 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.

PBC's Bobby O'Callaghan scores a try. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

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.

CBC’s Daire O’Callaghan and Rickey Barrett of PBC. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

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.

CBC scorers:

Tries: Charlie O’Shea, Leo O’Leary

Cons: Charlie O’Shea

Pen: Charlie O’Shea

PBC scorers:

Try: Bobby O’Callaghan

Con: Daniel Murphy

Pen: Daniel Murphy

CBC: Conall Cournane; Daire O’Callaghan, Leo O’Leary, Cian Corkery, Alex O’Connell (Bill McCarthy 56); Charlie O’Shea (capt), Christopher Barrett (Zach Seymor 70); Seán Fitzpatrick, Darragh Prenter, Craig Hughes (Ciarán Wallace 42); Robert O’Sullivan (Harry McCarthy 38), David Mac Coitir; Conor Galvin, Jack O’Callaghan, Ian Morton.

PBC: Rickey Barrett; Bobby O’Callaghan (Eddie Dooley 33), Alex Moloney, James O’Leary (capt), Daniel Murphy; Deckie Fitzgerald, Ronan Byrd; Fionn O’Sullivan (Daniel Higgins 70), Daniel Higgins (Liam Hegarty 35), Diarmuid Sheehy (Mikey Fitzgerald 65): Olan Dillon (Marc O’Toole 69), Daniel Foley (Seán MacFarlane O’Shea 47); Denis Murphy, Cormac Bohan, Rian MacFarlane O’Shea.

Referee: Tomás O’Sullivan (MAR).