Clonmel just lose out in Evans Cup Final

Clonmel 2nd XV travelled to Thurles last Saturday to play the eagerly anticipated Evans cup final which they hoped to retain from the previous year. Scariff started the stronger playing downfield and Clonmel were under pressure defending their waves of attacks. Scariff finally made the break through after ten minutes when they had an overlap on the wing and they went over for the first try of the afternoon but the conversion was missed. This was the wakeup call that Clonmel needed and they started to get back in to the game with the forwards driving up the field with inspirational pick and drives by Normile, Fahy and Czuprynski. After only fifteen minutes gone, Paul Walsh was forced to retire early with a hip injury and Paddy Long came on to replace him. Scariff got the momentum going again and made a break through the backs which saw their fullback go in under the posts. The conversion was kicked.

Clonmel now had an uphill battle to fight, and they stayed focused on the job at hand. Curran and O’ Donnell took on multiple crash balls to break the gain line, and the ball was spread wide to get Leo and Lonergan into the action. From a lineout in Scariff’s “22”, Clonmel’s’ forwards won possession and drove them back to the five metre line. Clonmel saw an overlap on the blind side and Gerry Purcell passed out to Dave Harney to go over for the well deserved try. David Lonergan kicked the conversion. Gus Slattery now replaced captain Stephen Cleary just before half time. Clonmel were awarded a penalty which Long missed but five minutes later, Scariff coughed up another penalty for going over the top. Lonergan converted to put just two points between the teams. Both teams were evenly contesting for territory and some excellent defending from both teams held the half time score to 12 – 10 in Scariff’s favour.