Ennis claim win in Junior Cup

  • Jan 08,2020

Munster Junior Cup, Rd 1


Clonmel 5 Ennis 12


Ennis turned in a spirited performance on Sunday to defeat Clonmel in the first round of the Munster Junior Cup.


Playing with a very strong wind, Ennis got off to a great start with a try in the opening minute. After an attempted clearance kick was blocked down, Mikey Lyons won the foot race to touch down and give Ennis  a 5-0 lead.


The home side settled after that and began to apply pressure through their pack as an inexperienced Ennis 8 struggled to cope with Clonmel’s physicality and nous. Some astute substitutions restored a degree of parity and Ennis regained a foothold in the game and began to play through the phases and trouble the Clonmel defence. They were duly rewarded when, off turnover ball, Ronan O’Halloran spotted space in the back field and kicked through for Johnny Martin to gather and touch down under the posts to push the lead to 12-0 at half time.


With the wind at their backs the home side must have fancied their chances but Ennis lifted their game a notch and largely controlled the second half through their well organised defence and clever ball carrying and continuity play.  However, with 10 minutes to go Clonmel finally registered a score to close the gap to 12-5 and set up a grandstand finish. An increasingly fractious and hotly contested closing period ended with Clonmel blowing a golden opportunity to score a try from turnover ball and Ennis claimed a well deserved win. We now play Scarrif away in round 2 on the 26th of January.


15. Johnny Martin 14. Mikey Lyons 13. Mark Taylor 12. Cian Nugent 11. Cian Guilfoyle 10. Sean Hayes 9. Ronan O’Halloran 8. Keelan Butler 7. Ross O’Flaherty 6. Ricardo Lopez 5. Rytis Roche 4. Colin Fitzgerald 3. Gavin Lawlor 2. Shane O’Grady 1. Jason Smith


Subs; Elie Mundu for Lawlor,  Frank Coffey for Lopez, Alan O’Shea for O’Grady, David Reynolds for Nugent