An act of faith for travelling supporters turned into a statement finish, as Clontarf surged late to put Young Munster away in style.

I’ve got to start with a shout out to the Young Munster tight head Paul Allen, who turned out on Saturday at the reputed age of 42! He was “thrun” over de wall of Greenfields at age 5/6 to learn the game from the older boys and he has never left. Truly a local legend!

Hats off also to President John “ Paco” Fitzgerald who was more than generous about Clontarf in his lunch speech. I remember him when he played against us back in the day. Wasn’t so generous then, I can tell you.

Clontarf started brightly and were 5 up before Munsters had a touch. After some good work up front, Michael Maloney found Hugo Lennox. He put Noah Sheridan through a gap and Tadhg Bird was on hand, to finish.

Munsters came straight back after Tarf made a Master McGrath of the kickoff and, after it looked like we had survived due to superb work by Deeney and Gilbert in the lineout, we managed to get on the wrong side of the ref in the scrum and coughed it up again. Munsters didn’t make a mistake this time and we went to 5-5.

Munsters went ahead after, yet again, some great defensive work was turned over through ill-discipline, which saw Munsters kick to the corner and go in after a surging maul.

Ivan Soroka levelled it at 12-12 after some serious forward carries in the home 22.

The home side then got a rub of the relic and added a beauty on the left, after a break in the centre looked suspiciously like it was helped by a block on Tadhg Bird. Munsters brought it out to a jiggy 26-12 when their No 8 made it in after some hefty work from the home forwards. Clontarf added another from Dylan Donnellan on the right of the posts after some power close-in from the Tarf forwards.

The first half had a real topsy turvy feel to it. They score we score …. BUT ….. with the score at 26 17 and half time approaching Clontarf started to grind the home side down.

After Noah Sheridan was bundled into touch with the line at his mercy, Brian Deeney took the home lineout. A few ferocious phases later Tarf knocked-on but, then proceeded to obliterate the home scrum. It was a telling sign.

Munsters started the second half brightly but conceded a scrum to the Tarf defence. Clontarf then scored a beauty. Off the scrum, Con Kelly probed the blind side, Hugo Lennox took it on, then Jim Peters had a go, Ivan bashed it onwards and, when it came out, fast hands put Fahy clear. His mazy run took him to 5 yards out and Aaron Coleman cleaned it up and went in under the posts for 26-24.

Munsters then added a keystone cops try. A breakout, up the left, looked to have run out of steam, when an inside ball hit Deeney in the head (or the nose) and he momentarily lost track of the ball, which managed to stay in play for the try scorer to hack on and score untouched for 33-24.

That was the last score for the home side, as the Clontarf power ascendancy became more obvious.
2 minutes later Munsters, on their own line, struggled to hold a scrum and knocked on, attempting a break for a Tarf ball. After the power pinned in the back row, the ball went wide and Hugo Lennox zipped inside Con Kelly and under the posts for 33 31.

Young Munsters had one more lash in the Tarf 22, but when a home scrum resulted in an away penalty, the writing was on the wall.

As we entered the final quarter the home side cracked. Having been repulsed from the Tarf line by the fierce away maul and some superb box kicks by Sam Owens, Munsters were pinned back under a constant phase assault. Tarf took the lead when a penalty kick came back off the post and was regathered and moved right where Ivan Soroka got his second score and 33 38. Tarf added another after a kick ahead by Noah Sheridan looked like a certain score for Sam Owens but he overran it and substitute Darragh Doyle scored with his first touch!

Straight from the kick off Tarf set the ball, Sam put it up, Peter Maher fielded beautifully, kicked ahead and Dec Adamson was on hand to touch it down in the corner. That brought the score to 33 50 where it stayed until the final whistle.

A great game for the neutrals, an act of faith for the Clontarf supporters, and frustration and a dose of heat exhaustion for the home side.

Clontarf are now guaranteed a home semi and will go into the final two games on top of the League after our good and noble friends in Belvo did the business against St Marys.

Congratulations to the Clontarf women who won promotion to Div 1 of the Leinster League on Sunday. Cheers also to the ever smiling, always bruised, J1’s who overcame last year’s Metro Cup winners Seapoint in a first round replay. Thumbs up also to the Under 20’s who simply refuse to let their season die and, despite a raft of injuries, they overcame a spirited (aren’t they always) Terenure in Lakeland’s to progress in the McCorry Cup.

Go the Bulls !!!