Old Crescent's destiny decided by penalty try

It left a bad taste, especially as Old Crescent's Division One status hinged on it, but there was somehow fitting that a decision by referee Alan Watson ultimately decided this game.

Watson had been an obtrusive presence all day in a stop-start, set-piece game which constituted an abysmal TV advert for the AIB League. Sheer resilience, outstanding defence and the immaculate boot of Brian Begley had steered Crescent into a lead which would have preserved their top flight status - instead sending Dungannon down and consigning Blackrock to a play-off.

However, inside the last five minutes a typically well-judged kick by Derek Tobin had given Young Munster's dominant scrum the platform of a five metre put-in. Crescent had only been penalised once after two collapsed scrums when, surprisingly, after the third went down, Watson hesitatingly backpedalled toward the posts in awarding a penalty try.

There was no way back from that. Despite RTE television's inability to call the relegation issue before going off air, and RTE radio's verdict that Crescent were in the play-off while Dungannon had been relegated, the Crescent players knew their fate coming off the pitch. News of Dungannon's win moments later as they boarded the team bus merely confirmed as much.

It doesn't get any worse than relegation and while "very proud of the way we played," captain Len Dinneen said "I was very annoyed at the penalty try decision and the fact that he didn't warn us. I thought it was a poor decision. Had he warned us I think it would have been a different scrum we would have gone into."

Crescent are thus left to reflect on a number of tight defeats, most notably the one to Old Belvedere, as they contemplate life back in Division Two. Life is tough enough as Limerick's fourth club, and Dinneen is already aware that the vultures will be circling over the likes of Begley, lock Daragh Kirby and left-winger Fergus Walsh.

"We've just got to try and come back up," said Dinneen. "I think we can. The uncertainty we've had in the club this season with three or four different coaches - you need some continuity. We need to get a system in place, with under20 and junior back-up. We've a very weak squad. It's a kick in the teeth but we've just got to regroup."

As for the old warhorse himself, Dinneen will take a leaf out of Tom Kiernan's manual. "I'll see. I wouldn't like to see my career end on that note. If I don't play I'll certainly be involved. As a lot of the guys are saying already, I won't turn my back. As Tommy Kiernan says, you never retire at the end of a season, you wait until the start of the next season and decide then."

Conceivably, Watson's decision only pre-empted the outcome anyway, for Young Munster would surely have learnt from the first half when their indecision was final as they camped on the Crescent line and wasted three closerange penalties at 9-0 with the strong wind behind them.

Young Munster's scrum had been shunting Crescent backward after the visitors' tight-head Tom Stapleton was cruelly injured in the game's second ruck, and with Robert Duggan suspended, this meant an ill-timed league debut for 19-year-old Mark Mulhare from Thurles. If anything, Young Munster's scrum tightened the screw still further after Des Clohessy came on, ultimately shoving Crescent off their own put-in three times and disrupting several other put-ins.

The first-half scrum pressure may well, as Young Munster's coach Brian Hickey observed, have been a factor in Watson's decision. Nonetheless, as Hickey also detected, Mr Watson "doesn't tend to give penalty tries. He doesn't tend to play advantage either but that's another day's work."

Terenure people will also recall how Watson steadfastly refused to give them a penalty try despite a sequence of at least seven collapsed scrums and four penalties in the final minutes of a promotion decider five years ago at Stradbrook. Ironically, Blackrock were thus promoted, and Saturday's decision enabled them to survive.

The win itself did little to ease Hickey's palpable frustration, and he was still livid over the secondquarter period when his team seemed to have more chiefs than indians.

"We made a bright opening, Aidan (O'Halloran) kicked very well and then for 25 minutes we had eight captains playing in the forwards. Bad decision-making, bad discipline and bad leadership in the forwards."

As Hickey also said, the option of going for a scrum was fine in itself if Young Munster persisted with it, as a try or penalty try may well have ensued, but it made little sense to vary this ploy with kicking for touch and working a planned tap move.

That each decision seemed to require a vote by proportional representation amongst at least half the side constituted a bad advert for democracy and brought back memories of Serge Blanco's directionless days as French skipper. Besides, had Young Munster opted for a tap-over and a 12-0 lead, with the wind the way it was, they'd surely have been back down in Crescent territory within minutes.

Still Young Munster rallied twice into the wind late on, which was probably something beyond the compass of Crescent, and so ultimately the better side won even if they made desperately heavy weather of it. Putting one over their local rivals and maintaining their unbeaten home record this season was sufficient spur though not surprisingly, the half-hearted prospect of earning a home semi-final had failed to get Young Munster's motivational juices flowing.

In the longer-term this win may be a better long-term investment. Young Munster had four former Crescent players in Saturday's squad and that number may now be swelled over the summer months.

The penalty try was also the difference between Young Munster playing Garryowen as opposed to Shannon but this abject display is unlikely to bear any resemblance whatsoever to next week's semifinal. Nor, for that matter, does Hickey believe the pair's even more abject 3-3 seasonal opener will bear any correlation to next Sunday's meeting. That's a blessing.

Scoring sequence: 11 mins: O'Halloran penalty, 3-0; 14: O'Halloran penalty, 6-0; 26: O'Halloran penalty, 9-0; 43: Begley penalty 9-3; 47: Begley penalty, 9-6; 54: Begley penalty, 9-9; 62: O'Halloran penalty, 12-9; 69: Begley penalty, 12-12; 72: Begley penalty, 12-15; 77: penalty try, O'Halloran conversion, 19-15.

Young Munster: P Boland; J Carey, N O'Meara, A Honan, N McNamara; A O'Halloran, D Tobin; N Hartigan, M Hayes, P Clohessy, M O'Halloran, D O'Meara, B Buckley, D Edwards, G Earls (capt). Replacements: D Clohessy for Hartigan (50 mins).

Old Crescent: B Begley; P McDonagh, A O'Dwyer, L Doyle, F Walsh; K Barrett, C Forde; D Davis, PJ McLoughlin, T Stapleton, L Dinneen (capt), D Kirby, G Dinneen, B Toland, P Neville. Replacements: M Mulhare for Stapleton (4 mins), K Hilton-Green for Barrett (73).

Referee: A Watson (Ulster).