UCC Claim Place in Heineken Munster Junior Cup Final

Shannon’s ambitions of lifting the Heineken Munster Junior Cup for the first time since 1996 must wait for at least another year as they came off second best to a UCC side that were full value for the 17-7 semi final win.

Heineken Munster Junior Cup Semi Final
UCC 17 Shannon 7

The students looked far more productive and ambitious throughout the game and it was only a very late rally that gave Shannon a glimmer of hope whilst chasing the game. The wintery elements gave Shannon the advantaged in the first half, but they failed to capitalise and it was UCC that dictated the pace and tempo of the game. They were far more clinical and as early as the 10 minute were threatening the Shannon line when the impressive centre Ivan Dineen was held short with a try saving tackle. However from the resultant scrum wing forward James Ryan was credited with a try after a surge from his forward colleagues. The conversion was added and at the signs were ominous for a below par Shannon side. They did though come close when Marcus O’Driscoll was held short after a neat chip through, but from the penalty that followed, Shannon elected to go for a quick tap and dismiss a simple looking three point opportunity, but strong defence denied any score.
UCC continued to look dangerous behind the scrum and Peter Shallow was a serious threat on the wing, but the score remained at 7-0 at half time.
A quick penalty from UCC after the restart extended their leads and at this stage in looked a long way back for Shannon. After 23 minutes of the second half it got worse for Shannon as hooker Noel Finneran put UCC further ahead after another forward push to the line.
The visitors to Musgrave Park only then began to play with urgency and when Eoghan Grace chased through his own block down to score a try, Shannon set about further reducing the deficit, but time eventually got the better of them and UCC held tough and claimed a well deserved victory.

UCC
15 Sean Scanlon, 14 Peter Shallow, 13 Brian Derham, 12 Ivan Dineen, 11 Colin Crowley, 10 Ronan O’Sullivan (capt), 9 Eoghan Kennedy, 1 Jason Carton, 2 Noel Finneran, 3 Will O’Donovan, 4 Peter Murphy, 5 Mike Kenefick, 6 A N Other, 7 Conor Harbison, 8 Jonathan Harte
Replacements: Riobeard Wilmot, Colin O’Brien, Paul Moynihan

Shannon
S. Mullally, M .Tuohy, J. O’Brien, J. Manuel (E. Lane), M. O’Driscoll, J. Moran, R. O’Loughlin,
L. Hogan (N. Murray), J .Cronin (C. Nunan), G. McNamara, N. O’Driscoll (B .Meade), F. Broderick, L. Mullane, E. Grace, G. Murphy (P. Loughnane)

Referee: Andrew d’Arcy (MAR)
Touch Judge 1: Muiris Mahon (MAR)
Touch Judge 2: John Burnett (MAR)