The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Castleisland beat Mallow to advance in Munster Cup
THE heavy rain took its toll on a number of fixtures over the weekend including Tralee’s Munster Junior Cup encounter against Clonakilty. CASTLEISLAND had a well deserved victory over Mallow in Castleisland last Sunday. The visitors came to the Crageens intent on lowering the colours of the home side, but the locals gave an excellent performance to defeat the Cork kingpins.
Central to the Castleisland victory was their dominance in the half back positions where Daniel O’Shea gave a typically assured performance in the out half position while Willie Casey was at his sniping best at scrum half. Kieran Downey and Pat Fitzgerald gave solid performances in the pack where they had excellent back up from Mike Cronin and James Culhane.
Driving rain and win made for tough handling conditions , but credit to Castleisland who kept mistakes to the minimum. They did start poorly, however, and Mallow led by 12-3 after 20 minutes.
Castleisland needed something special to get back into the game and it came from winger Sean Nolan who showed admirable speed when he intercepted a loose Mallow pass and ran the length of the field to touch down in the corner. Ten minutes later Mike Cronin went on a trademark burst and reached over the line to score try number 2. With Daniel O’Shea landing both conversions, Castleisland took a healthy 17-12 lead in at the break.
Castleisland continued to dominate after the break, although they did get a scare midway through the second half when Mallow went over for a converted try. Castleisland roused themselves once more, and Kieran Downey scored a try after a good forward maul from the pack. O’Shea converted once more, and added two more penalties afterwards to seal Castleisland’s place in the next round of the competition.
Killorglin 19 Bantry 3
KILLORGLIN travelled to Bantry for the first round of the Munster Junior Cup. Killorglin played uphill for the first half. In testing conditions and took with an early lead with a Luke O’Shea penalty.
Bantry looked threatening at times but with Neil O’Shea tackling well they held out. Bantry did score a penalty to tie the game at 3-3. A great break from Rodi Healy let to a Killorglin penalty which Luke O’Shea converted to put his team 6-3. Killorglin’s Noel O’Malley got a yellow card for an infringement, but Killorglin held out to go in at the break with a slender threepoint lead.
Good defensive play from Tom Healy and a swift counter attack saw Luke O’Shea pass to Tony Lynch who did well to hold possession and score a good Killorglin try. Minutes late a good break from Rodi Healy led to debut try for Neil O’Brien to push Killorglin 16-3 ahead. There were three yellows shown soon afterwards, one to Killorglin and two to Bantry, as tempers became fraught in the testing conditions.
Killorglin held their nerve, however, and Luke O’Shea slotted over another penalty to seal a 19-3 win for Killorglin.
Kinsale 31 Rugbai Corca Dhuibhne 10
DIVISION 2 side Kinsale were too strong for a depleted Corca Dhuibhne outfit in Kinsale last Sunday. The home side hit Corca Dhuibhne for five tries on the day. Colm Corduff scored a good try for Corca Dhuibhne while Seamus Moriarty landed the conversion and a penalty, but Kinsale had too much quality overall for the west Kerry outfit.