AIB CUP FINAL Cork Con 15 Garryowen 11:CORK CONSTITUTION made amends for last year's shock final loss to Ballynahinch by carving out a hard-earned victory at Dubarry Park.
And Constitution, the inaugural winners in 2006 and now the first side to win it twice, did it the hard way as they came from six points down despite being reduced to 14 men just before the break.
Referee Alain Rolland, on the advice of touch judge David Keane, dished out a straight red card to lock Ian Nagle for repeated use of the fist in a ruck.
“I didn’t see the red-card incident,” said Constitution coach Brian Walsh. “But we were down to 14, we talked to them at the break and told them they just had to keep on playing the same way as they had been, see it through.”
So they did. Their wastefulness of ample possession in the opening half looked set to undermine them, with Richard Lane’s fine try after 15 minutes a poor reward for a quarter of dominance.
It was never going to be a free-flowing clash between two old rivals, but it was a gripping battle, especially up front.
“I suppose we played out a dull encounter last week and one thing we wanted to do today was to come and play rugby. We did a lot of that at the start of the game, playing good rugby, but I didn’t think we got the reward for it, didn’t put the points on the board,” noted Walsh.
Garryowen hit back with two long-range penalties from scrum-half Conor Murray to edge in front, and they looked like adding to their 2007 success when hooker Michael Sherry barged over in the same incident that saw Nagle red-carded.
But Garryowen never pushed on or made use of their extra man.
Instead Constitution owned the ball after the restart despite their numerical disadvantage.
They were rewarded for their patience when they recycled the ball several times before outhalf Daragh Lyons spotted an opening and evaded several tackles to dance over with 12 minutes remaining to reduce the deficit to a point.
Scott Deasy added the conversion from just to the left of the posts to put Cork Constitution into a lead they never lost.
Deasy made the game safe with a penalty in the dying moments.
“They’re a very tight-knit group, they felt for Ian Nagle over what had happened,” added Walsh. “They back each other up, a very resilient group, and we decided that if we did go down, at least we’d go down giving it everything. Thankfully it was enough for us to win the match and the cup.”
CORK CONSTITUTION: S Deasy; R Lane, T Gleeson, E Ryan, C Healy; D Lyons, D Williams; M Gately, R Quinn, S Archer; M O'Connell, I Nagle; B Holland, F Cogan, P O'Mahony. Replacements: B Hayes for O'Connell, A Ryan for E Ryan (both 70 mins); D O'Driscoll for Williams (77 mins); G Murray for Gately (80 mins).
GARRYOWEN: R O'Mahony; I Hanley, C Doyle, K Hartigan, A Gaughan; W Staunton, C Murray; J Harney, M Sherry, D Lavery; F McKenna, E Mackey; P Neville, D Sherry, A Kavanagh. Replacements: A McCloskey for McKenna, C Hartigan for Gaughan, L Burke for Kavanagh (all 70 mins); R Brosnan for Harney, M Melbourne for Mackey (both 75 mins).
Referee: A Rolland(IRFU).
