ALL-IRELAND LEAGUE DIVISION ONE SEMI-FINAL Cork Constitution 6 Clontarf 25: IN THEIR own way, like Munster circa 2006, Clontarf are still looking for their holy grail and, having lost finals in 2003 and 2006, come knocking for the third time in Saturday week's AIB All-Ireland League final.
You’d never describe Munster’s ultimate success as lucky, but Clontarf could do with a change in fortune after a Ballymena side packed with Ulster professionals and a high-class Shannon, buttressed by Alan Quinlan, beat them in those previous deciders.
Alas, the IRFU have decreed – after successive Musgrave Park deciders – the final will be played at Thomond Park rather than, say, the RDS. And, sod’s law has left them facing Shannon again in what is effectively a home final for the serial Limerick medal-hunters.
Perhaps though, if nothing else, it will focus their minds, and their loud travelling support ought to be swelled further for this third attempt to bring home the trophy.
Clontarf beat Shannon at Thomond Park last November, and on Saturday they removed a significant monkey from their backs by overcoming Cork Constitution at Temple Hill for the first time in a manner that confirmed they are finishing the season in fine nick. They’ve won their last three games by 99-6.
“We came here to play today,” said coach Andy Ward. “The boys took the confidence from the last couple of games and took it through. It is a good team and a good squad. We’ve been written off in some quarters, but we don’t mind about that. But I knew if they played to the best of their ability we’d have a very strong show. They kept their heads, they stayed positive and we continued to play even in tight circumstances.
“Obviously set-piece was key, but we upped the urgency and the tempo followed from it, and we managed to get some very good patterns together and that hunger kept us working.”
Resuming at 3-3, Clontarf did indeed up their intensity and maintained it in an increasingly assured and dominant second period. They scrummed strongly and their supremacy in the lineouts was even greater, where they nicked five of Constitution’s throws.
Aside from contributing handsomely to this effort, their 22-year-old ex-Suttonians lock Ben Reilly was possibly the best ball-carrying forward on the pitch. He is potentially the kind of player only the club game can produce but will probably become increasingly lost to the system thanks to the ill-conceived A league at provincial level, which will further reduce the club game’s standards and relevance.
Their South African flanker, Heinrich Stride, understandably won the man of the match award with two close-range finishes to reward Clontarf’s increasing control in this, their fifth successive semi-final and seventh overall.
But as even the Constitution cognoscenti conceded, Clontarf’s Leinster scrumhalf Paul O’Donoghue was the game’s most influential figure, not only running the match but using his all-round footballing skills all over the field and then sniping regularly as his fitness shone through in the final quarter.
It was also a measure of Clontarf’s squad strength that they could spring Max Rantz McDonald from the bench. He applied the coup de grace by completing a quick-witted counter-attack from inside half-way, when first he released Stride to stride up the touchline and then ran in O’Donoghue’s unhurried and well-timed pass.
Once more a Constitution season finishes in anti-climax, but this goes with the territory of being perennial contenders. Two additional AIB League crowns to add to their inaugural triumph probably feels likes a slight under-achievement, for it’s worth noting that, in reaching seven semi-finals in the last eight years, Constitution would have won six of the last eight leagues were it not for the play-offs.
Considering they’ve had to play through the season without Shane O’Connor in the secondrow, and have missed Daragh Hurley and Duncan Williams – probably the best young scrumhalf in the country – on the run-in, they did well to top the table again.
Constitution also bridged a 20-year gap to win the Munster Senior Cup, (beating UL Bohs, Shannon, UCC and Garryowen in tough games along the way) and reached the AIB Cup final.
Lately, though, they looked to be running on empty. Frank Cogan dredged up a hard-working, hard-running performance from somewhere as, typically, did Cronan Healy. And Jeremy Manning, Evan Ryan and Tom Gleeson looked sporadically threatening. But this was their 25th game of the season and it showed.
“The season has taken its toll,” admitted coach Brian Walsh, “and then you pick up injuries. I’ve no complaints about today, Clontarf were the better side. We were in the game at half-time and in normal circumstances we would have looked to pile on the intensity in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half, but we just didn’t have it in us . . . the bodies weren’t able. We did well to finish top of the league but we’d nothing left to give.”
Scoring sequence: 10 minsO'Shea pen 0-3; 33: Manning pen 3-3; (half-time 3-3); 48: Stride try, Dufficy con 3-10; 61: Dufficy pen 3-13; 68: Manning pen 6-13; 77: Stride try, Dufficy con 6-20; 80: McDonald try 6-25.
CORK CONSTITUTION: D Lyons; R Lane, T Gleeson, E Ryan, C Healy; J Manning, J Stringer; G Murray, D Murray, T Ryan, M O'Connell, B Holland, E Leamy, B Cuttriss (capt), F Cogan. Replacements: P O'Mahoney for Leamy (half-time), D Kelly for Cuttriss (65 mins), C Nolan for Stringer (73 mins).
CLONTARF: P Howard; M Keating, D O'Shea (capt), B O'Donnell, N O'Brien; M Dufficy, P O'Donoghue; K Dorian, A Dundon, N Treston, B Reilly, S Crawford, H Stride, M Garvey, N Carson. Replacements: J Wickham for Dorrian, C Deegan for O'Donnell (both half-time), B Focas for Garvey (49-56 and 82 mins), M Rantz McDonald for Howard (68 mins), S Treacy for O'Donoghue (82 mins).
Referee: Alan Lewis(IRFU).
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