The U16s travelled to Skibbereen today for the Pan Munster Bowl quarter-final. After a long journey and a good warm-up, the game began at a high pace, with Clonmel pinning Skibbereen into their own half for much of the opening 15 minutes. Despite enjoying the majority of possession, Skibbereen proved difficult to penetrate until a lovely line was taken by Clonmel’s No. 6 Donnacha Dunlea, who carved open the Skibbereen defence to score the first try of the game. The fierce wind proved too strong for the conversion attempt, which drifted left and wide.
Skibbereen were not willing to give up and quickly put Clonmel under pressure inside their 22. A strong line-out and driving maul allowed them to move the ball wide, resulting in their opening try, which was successfully converted. As half-time approached, powerful carries from the Skibbereen forwards applied tremendous pressure on the Clonmel line. Clonmel defended gallantly but conceded a penalty, which Skibbereen converted to make it 10–05. Shortly afterwards, Skibbereen earned a second penalty just inside the 10-metre line, which was also converted, giving them a 13–05 lead at the break.
With the wind now at their backs, Clonmel began the second half with great energy. The breakthrough came when Clonmel’s No. 9 Jack Galvin read the play brilliantly to intercept just outside his own 22 and ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts, converting his own try to narrow the score to 13–12. Both teams traded possession over the next 10 minutes before sustained pressure from Skibbereen was rewarded with a try although the conversion was missed. This set up a grandstand finish, with the hosts leading 18–12 going into the final eight minutes.
Clonmel piled on the pressure, securing a free kick followed by a penalty, which they kicked to the corner. Unfortunately, the usually reliable line-out faltered, and a rare knock-on prevented a strong scoring opportunity. Skibbereen cleared their lines and held on to win a fantastic game of rugby.
Well done to Skibbereen, and commiserations to our U16s, who put in a mighty performance.
