Christian Brothers College, Cork, were attempting to join their older brethren and make it a double appearance in the Munster Schools Cup deciders at Musgrave Park yesterday.
But they were unable to use a physical and territorial advantage to pull away from their determined city rivals in the penultimate stage of the junior competition. The Christians forwards were bigger to a man but ran up against a strong scrummaging PBC unit and a very good back row defence.
Try scoring opportunities were therefore kept to a premium, and even when they did arise, especially in the latter stages of the first half, Christians made far too many handling mistakes.
Presentation, on the other hand, looked sharper behind the scrum and they took the lead with a beautiful try from winger John Gleeson 10 minutes into the game.
Christians came storming back and second row Tim Healy took a clean catch at the lineout and dived over for the equalising try. Despite their best efforts after that, neither side were able to make the vital breakthrough.
In the second half John O'Flynn was stopped short for PBC, and near the end Patrick Crowley came within feet of sealing it for Christians only to pulled down with the line beckoning.
CBC: E Corcoran; P Crowley, D Kelleher, J Rea, B Fitzgerald; C Mitchell, T O'Leary; S Gallagher, K Barry, D Cronin, T Healy, J Deane, D Blower, S O'Halloran, L Quaid (capt). Replacements: D O'Regan for Barry, B Twohig for Rea (both 74 mins).
PBC: T Murphy; D O'Leary, R Hill, M O'Gara, J Gleeson; B Keeshan, J Tait; R Daly, R Quinn (capt), S O'Keeffe, B Buckley, J Moynihan, P O'Donovan, H O'Flynn, J O'Flynn. Replacements: R Nugent for Buckley (25 mins), N McMahon for Moynihan, C O'Sullivan for O'Keeffe (both 41 mins).
Referee: N Sexton (Munster).
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