The Munster Junior Schools Cup returns to Presentation Brothers College for the 30th time in its history as they defeated Cork School Christian Brothers College 14-10 at Musgrave Park on Wednesday.
Other sides would use two tries per piece in a tight and tense affair, but in the end, two conversions by the brilliant Harry Murphy ensured that the president landed the silver for the first time since 2014.
This was the first time in 22 years that these two famous old rivals met at this stage of the competition and the pres came out on that day in the year 2000 as a victory.
With the weight of the story behind them, PBC opened the scoring in the fifth minute as captain Rory Maloney broke a tackle before driving clear for an attempt that easily converted Harry Murphy.
But CBC, looking for a 20th Cup triumph, refused to let their head down and they deservedly climbed onto the scoreboard as Daire O’Callaghan fell into the corner after good work in building up Bill McCarthy, but Charlie Patrick O’Shea was unable to equalize with his conversion.
Both teams would then spend the chances to add their numbers from penalties before the pres had the decisive next score in the 41st.
Some strict defense of Murphy and Hurley stopped the Christians from reducing the deficit and when their resilience was broken, by Christian’s Conor Galvin, it was too late, with the pres hanging on to claim the silverware.
Scorer – Presentation Brothers College: R Maloney, E Hurley try all; H Murphy 2 cons. Christian Brothers College: D O’Callaghan, C Galvin try it all.
BROTHERS COLLEGE PRESENTATION – D Fitzgerald, E Hurley, M Hetherington, J O’Leary, A Dunne (E O’Dowd 59), H Murphy, R Byrd; S MacFarlane O’Shea, L Hegarty, F O’Sullivan, C Donnelly, D Murphy, D Foley, B Foley, R Moloney.
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS COLLEGE – C Kilbride, B McCarthy, A O’Connell (B Mayer 59), L O’Leary, D O’Callaghan, CP O’Shea, C Barrett; O’Callaghan R, O’Rourke P, Shalloe M (R Cogan 34), Z Coughlan, I Morton, C Walsh, C Hughes, C Galvin.
REFEREE – Thomas O’Sullivan (MAR).
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