Clonmel Have To Settle For Victory Alone

“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory! Victory, however long and hard the road may be” – Winston Churchill, May 1940. It is obviously a sign of changed times when we were bemoaning the loss of a bonus point at the end of this Division 1 league match last Sunday. But we have the victory, so let’s all maintain some perspective here – four league games, four victories, two bonus points – bring it on! We may be spoilt by Clonmel’s best ever start to a league campaign but only the wildly optimistic thought that this would be easy. When Richmond comes to town, one leaves the bone china in the cabinet – this would be no choir practice. To add to our concerns, Clonmel would start without four of its frontliners, including the influential Ronan Crosse.

Clonmel kicked off on a perfect afternoon and knew immediately that the forward battle would be the toughest yet encountered. The early pressure from the visitors was lifted by a huge clearance kick by Morgan Lyons and the action quickly formed on Richmond’s “22” – from a scrum Clonmel’s backs and pack combined down the right and were rewarded when John Stokes blasted over for the try on 6 minutes. Daniel Lyons added the conversion to put Clonmel 7-0 ahead. A tonic start. But this stung Richmond and they then subjected Clonmel to a period of pressure right up against their own line, but the team which has had two clean sheets were not going to give anything away and soon cleared the ball downfield where good continuity involving Joyce and Melbourne brought the home team into Richmond’s “22” – the pressure produced the penalty and Daniel Lyons obliged to put Clonmel 10-0 ahead on 22 minutes.

But Richmond were never out of this game and they fiercely contested every lineout and scrum and Clonmel had to work hard to keep them in check. Clonmel then had a spell of superiority and drove Richmond down their left side – this was followed by Clonmel’s best backs move which saw Morgan Lyons go over on 28 minutes – brother Daniel’s conversion attempt was just wide to leave the home side 15-0 ahead. Richmond again responded and a kicking duel reminiscent of the World Cup had our nerves jangling – this was brought to a halt when the Richmond centre caught the ball and Melbourne at the same time and was driven back about 20 metres, but the visitors turned the ball over and their backs swung the ball left in an attempted breakout – Clonmel looked to be caught off guard by this, but the situation was turned on its head when Dave Harney intercepted the final pass to go over unopposed at the posts. Lyons again obliged to put Clonmel 22-0 ahead as the half-time whistle blew – three tries in the first 40 minutes – we assumed the bonus point was just a formality.

Clonmel collected the second-half kick-off and seemed intent on continuing where they left off by putting huge pressure on the visitors – but now Clonmel commenced a litany of small errors which continuously let Richmond off the hook – the visitors accepted the invitation to get back on terms and retorted by applying their own pressure which had Clonmel defending their own line a couple of times – but the danger signals were there – Clonmel seemed to go “walkabout” for a while and Richmond took full advantage – they drove into Clonmel’s right corner on 15 minutes and the defence which has been Clonmel’s hallmark of late seemed absent as the visitors poached a reasonably easy, but well deserved, try. 22-5 to Clonmel. David Lonergan had now replaced the injured Harney.

Clonmel now freshened up with the introduction of Phil Corby and John Kelly for Mark Normile and Niall Mackey but the home side just could not put clear water between themselves and the visitors. The reality is that Richmond won the second half 5-0. The game dropped somewhat in intensity – Clonmel had opportunities to put it away but handling errors at crucial moments kept that bonus point on the horizon. Did you ever spend a whole match shouting at the telly? Futile, isn’t it? We had the same experience here – all our exhortations and shouted instructions could not bring our team to prise out that fourth try. In the meantime Richmond grew in confidence and were always looking for the next score – on 34 minutes they were very close to it on Clonmel’s line but the home side took great satisfaction in driving the visitors off their own ball – the exchanges had become quite messy at this stage and a yellow card reduced Richmond to 14 men.

Clonmel could see the minutes ebbing away on the scoreboard and made a frantic last effort to get that score – firstly when David Lonergan broke down the left and then, at the death when Richmond were stuck on their line and the whole left field opened up for Clonmel – we must score here, but the ball was fumbled. Story of the day. But we’ll gladly take the victory – next Sunday sees Clonmel at home again when they face high-fliers Bandon. This will be a stern test – we need total commitment (and every player to make himself available) from everyone to get over this one. Remember – “indifference is always the friend of the enemy” (Elie Wiesel, author and former Auschwitz prisoner). Great home crowd on Sunday – we need you all again next Sunday!