All-Ireland League Division 1A final: Clontarf 22 Cork Constitution 21
The full-time whistle was greeted with the Black Eyed Peas and Tonight’s going to be a good night. Well, it was certainly liable to be one hell of a night in Castle Avenue after Clontarf dethroned Cork Con with this taut, tense and fluctuating win to earn a fourth Energia All-Ireland title.
In so doing, Clontarf varnished a first Fraser McMullen Cup named in honour of their legendary former player with a fourth Energia All-Ireland League crown. Located amid a plethora of GAA clubs in Dublin’s northside, the eight-time runners-up keep rebuilding and keep coming back under Andy Wood.
So, the curse has been exorcised now and it could be argued that this was Clontarf’s best season. As their noisy blue and red invasion of the Aviva began the celebrations, this meant as much as anything the club has ever achieved.
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Having topped the table, beating Con already twice, and having had more of the possession, territory and chances in this game, Clontarf deserved this win, but Con – cup match animals to their core – made them sweat all the way, but for the third season running the reigning champions were beaten in the final and Shannon remain the last side to retain the AIL fully 20 years ago.
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To a large degree, Con repelled Clontarf’s power game better than most, but the winners had the game’s outstanding player in 21-year-old Leinster academy centre Hugh Cooney, who decorated the game with all manner of big moments on both sides of the ball.
After a scoreless opening quarter, when Clontarf failed to translate some huge carrying by number 8 John Vinson into points and Conor Kelly uncharacteristically missed a couple of penalties, the dam burst as the sides traded four tries and the lead three times.
Cooney took a good line off Sam Owens to reach out for the line, albeit Kelly missed the conversion, to belatedly earn ‘Tarf some deserved reward. But Con’s response was ominously swift as Sean French took a good line off Adam Maher’s pass to score and James Taylor converted.
Back came ‘Tarf, adding some deft touches to their power when Cooney took an inside pass off fellow centre Connor Fahy to make inroads and offload for Dylan Donnellan to demonstrate his renowned finishing ability with his 15th try of the season – relatively modest by his standards.
Again, Con responded strongly, Daid Hyland’s surge off the base of an attacking a scrum launching a high tempo, four-phase attack which ended with Maher spotting a gap and sniping through it to score. A huge defensive set by Con, when withstanding three Clontarf penalties to the corner despite the binning of Ronán O’Sullivan for blatant side entry at the first of them, felt huge, all the more so when Vinson had to be replaced at half-time.
But his replacement, Oran Walsh, immediately made a wonderful tackle on Matthew Bowen which led to a turnover penalty and when Cooney was high tackled by French, Kelly steered ‘Tarf in front with the difficult penalty.
Con’s excellent defensive lineout then stymied ‘Tarf after Cooney had shot up out of the line to tackle French in a manner which had Jacques Nienaber’s influence all over it, before his tracking and superb tackle denied Maher .
After Taylor, man of the match in last season’s final, slightly miscued a kickable penalty and was withdrawn, if to return soon after, the Cooney show continued with a turnover penalty. But their lineout couldn’t deliver again, before Kelly missed a kickable scrum penalty. It turned out to be a good miss.
Walsh ran back the restart with gusto, and Kelly pulled the strings by dropping back, taking a pull back and releasing Cooney for him to send Fahy away. The ‘Tarf centre had runners on his outside and Cooney back on his inside, but took the right option and stepped inside the last man, Bowen, to score nearer the posts.
The importance of this, and Kelly’s conversion, was underlined when Con went to the corner and replacement Jacob Sheahan powered off the drive to score; Taylor’s conversion making it a one-point game.
But one more turnover by Walsh, who had a huge 40 minutes, enabled Clontarf to run the clock down and for Kelly to kick the ball dead. Clontarf are champions once more.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 22 mins: Cooney try 0-5; 27: French try, Taylor con 5-7; 33: Donnellan try, Kelly con 12-7; 38: Maher try, Taylor con 12-14; (half-time 12-14); 46: Kelly pen 15-14; 73: Fahy try, Kelly con 22-14; 77: J Sheahan try, Taylor con 22-21.
CLONTARF: Tadhg Bird; Andy Smith, Hugh Cooney, Connor Fahy, Peter Maher; Conor Kelly, Sam Owens; Charlie Ward, Dylan Donnellan (capt), Ben Griffin, Fionn Gilbert, Jim Peters, Callum Smith, Aaron Coleman, John Vinson.
Replacements: Oran Walsh for Vinson (h-t); Luke Brady for Peters (67 mins); Conor Bateman for Ward (70 mins). Not used: Declan Adamson, Will Reilly, Stephen Ryan, James Conroy, Alvin Amaniampong.
CORK CONSTITUTION: George Coomber; Daniel Hurley, Sean French, Niall Kenneally, Matthew Bowen; James Taylor, Adam Maher; Mark Donnelly, Billy Scannell, Luke Masters, Sean Duffy, John Forde, Jack Kelleher, Ronán O’Sullivan, David Hyland (capt).
Replacements: Charlie Connolly for Masters (h-t); Jacob Sheahan for Duffy, Rob Jermyn for Hurley (both 58 mins); Danny Sheahan for Scannell (59); Eoghan Smyth for Taylor, Eoin Quilter for O’Sullivan (both 67); David Good for Connolly, Taylor for Coomber (both 75); Louis Kahn for Maher (73).
Referee: Keane Davison (IRFU).
