Cork Constitution survive early red card to beat Terenure to AIL glory

Cork Constitution 33 Terenure College 22

True to their DNA, Cork Constitution delivered a clinical big-game performance befitting a final to become Energia All-Ireland champions for a seventh time, in the process denying Terenure and their army of supporters the first back-to-back titles since 2006.

Despite incurring a 20th minute red card and two yellow cards, Con defended heroically at times and opportunistically kept the scoreboard ticking. Their classy outhalf James Taylor, who really is good enough to be playing for Munster, landed seven kicks from seven for an 18-point haul and on the three occasions they turned down a shot at goal Con were rewarded with three tries.

Captain David Hyland and fellow backrower Jack Keleher put in huge shifts and, tellingly, as well as having the better set pieces, their bench made the bigger contribution. Con brought a ferocious physicality form the off which seemed to unsettle Terenure, and, allowing for a couple of blatant and daft yellow cards, bizarrely their second half discipline was instrumental too.

Terenure played a good deal more rugby but will be left to rue a host of missed chances as well as a procession of penalties against them and, just as damagingly, a lineout which again malfunctioned for a variety of reasons.

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Hence, ultimately, Con with something to spare in a stop-start final that would have benefited from a more sympathetic referee than the pedantic Andrew Cole.

Con struck first inside two minutes when a couple of penalties earned them field position and an attacking lineout inside the 22. Niall Kenneally shaped to truck it up but instead passed and fullback Rob Hedderman arrived like a bullet train with perfect timing an outside-in line onto James Taylor’s pass to slice open the Terenure defence. Taylor converted.

Not helped by their lineout malfunctioning, last year’s champions appeared to begin nervously, and Con’s fast line speed, ability to keep 15 players on their feet and work in the collisions had them winning the gain line initially.

Terenure were creating space on the outside, Adam La Grue making one big carry after an earlier textbook tackle on Daniel Hurley, but Luke Clohessy knocked on in space and, from the resultant scrum penalty, Taylor landed a 48-metre kick to make it 10-0.

Con were definitely winning the physical battle and taking the fight to Terenure, but their lock John Forde went a step too far when catching Adam Melia in the head,

Andrew Cole decreed that it was “direct contact with the head” and contained a “high degree of danger and no mitigation”. His TMO Mark Patton concurred and Forde was red-carded.

Aran Egan missed the penalty but Terenure were revived by a huge Coughlan carry up the middle. They opted for the corner with another penalty, only for their lineout to not deliver again, and, given another opportunity, Brewer opted for the posts and Egan bisected them.

But when Levi Vaughan was pinged for playing the ball on the deck despite appearing to make a clear release, Con deduced that every excursion needed to be maximised. They went up the line and a patient, sustained drive ended with Billy Scannell, brother of Niall and Rory, scoring, and Taylor’s conversion gave them a 17-3 lead to defend.

Brewer had been clearly targeted as Terenure’s main carrier but he stepped out of one onrushing tackle and offloaded out of another for Peter Sylvester to release Craig Adams. They mounted a sustained attack off an ensuing scrum for Coughlan to break the tackles of Scannell and Luke Masters to reach out for the line.

Egan converted and Terenure maintained the initiative with a sustained multi-phase attack from deep, and nearing half-time Niall Kenneally was binned for a deliberate trip. But Terenure messed up another attacking lineout and replacement prop Conan O’Donnell was the unintended target when held up over the line by Jack Kelleher to preserve Con’s 17-10 lead at the interval.

Upon the resumption, Brewer picked off a no-look offload by Matthew Bowen and Duffy needlessly played the ball from an offside position to incur a yellow card and leave his team defending with 12 men. Con have a good defence, but not that good and Conor Phillips skilfully sent Egan over by taking out two men with a popped offload.

But Egan missed the conversion and Brewer was pinged for a neck roll by the TMO for Taylor to land the penalty. He added another with his side back to 14 when Sylvester was harshly penalised for a high hit.

Back came Terenure, Campbell Classon and Melia working Adam La Grue on the edge and he stepped Hedderman for a fine finish, Egan’s conversion making it a one-score game.

The key moment of the match followed, when Egan gathered the restart, danced clear and released Phillips on halfway, but Bowen - renowned for his try-scoring exploits - ate up the ground to somehow twist the Terenure winger onto his back on the line and prevent a grounding.

Con had to make one more defiant stand on their try line which ended with Cole pinging Terenure for dissent. This led to another plethora of penalties against Terenure, Taylor landing one and then converting a try by replacement prop Danny Sheahan after Con went to the corner and mauled toward the line again.

With that, the inaugural AIL winners of 1991 were back on top of the Irish club game once again.

Scoring sequence: 7 mins Hedderman try, Taylor con 7-0; 18 mins Taylor pen 10-0; 24 mins Egan pen 10-3; 29 mins Scannell try, Taylor con 17-3; 36 mins Coughlan try, Egan con 17-10; (half-time 17-10); 46 mins Egan try 17-15; 49 mins Taylor pen 20-15; 49 mins Taylor pen 23-15; 52 mins La Grue try, Egan con 23-22; 62 mins Taylor pen 26-22; 74 mins Sheahan try, Taylor con 3-22.

Cork Constitution: Rob Hedderman; Daniel Hurley, Harry O’Riordan, Niall Kenneally, Matthew Bowen; James Taylor, Adam Maher, Alessandro Heaney, Billy Scannell; Luke Masters, Sean Duffy; John Forde, Jack Kelleher, Ronan O’Sullivan, David Hyland (Capt).

Replacements: Eoin Quilter for Duffy (37-40 mins) and O’Sullivan (56 mins), Billy Crowley for Kenneally (50 mins), Danny Sheahan for Scannell, Brendan Quinlan for Heaney, Charlie Connolly for Masters, Matisse Lamarque D’Arrouzat for Duffy, Rob Jermyn for Hedderman (all 56 mins), Louis Kahn for Maher (65 mins), Heaney for Quinlan (76 mins).

Red card: Forde (20 mins)

Yellow cards: Kenneally (40 mins), Duffy (44 mins).

Terenure College: Adam LaGrue; Craig Adams, Sam Berman, Peter Sylvester, Conor Phillips; Aran Egan, Alan Bennie; Campbell Classon, Levi Vaughan, Adam Tuite; Harrison Brewer (Capt), Matthew Caffrey; Adam Melia, Luke Clohessy, Jordan Coghlan.

Replacements: James White for Clohessy (28 mins), Conan O’Donnell for Tuite (37 mins), Michael O’Reilly for Caffrey (52 mins), Ben Howard for Classon, Tuite for O’Donnell (both 62 mins), Classon for Howard (77 mins).

Not used : Max Russell, Conor McKeon, Yago Fernandez Vilar, Barry Galvin.

Referee: Andrew Cole (IRFU).

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