And so the Bateman Cup brought Clontarf to Nenagh Ormond for the first time in history and true to the sporting ethos of Tipperary, the welcome was warm and generous off the pitch and hot and heavy on the pitch.
Nenagh are currently propping up Div 1A of the league and have yet to register a win. Their supporters were taking a philosophical view on this and were giving resigned indications that maybe the omens were not great for their season.
On Saturday, the home side brought big portions of war hammer to the visitors and knocked the Clontarf team out of its stride for a large portion of the game . We could be accused of being a little presumptuous with some of our play. If that was true, then we were disabused of that by some thunderous hits and full tempo ball-carrying that reminded the Tarf flyers that accuracy is important, if you are to avoid being monstered by the Nenagh tacklers. Suffice to say, there were a lot of sore bodies after the game.
Clontarf opened the scoring after 10 minutes with a solid maul into the home 22 which was released to Con Kelly, whose cross-kick was on the money and Peter Maher scored in the corner for 0 5.
10 minutes later a Tarf maul roared from the 10 metre line into the home 22, where the ball was promptly turned over. Nenagh made ground deep into Tarf territory where their captain, O’Flaherty, found a gap for the try and 7 5.
Con Kelly added a penalty for 7 8 and, as time ticked towards the break, Clontarf cut loose.
When a home penalty struck a post and was cleared to touch, Fionn Gilbert got a hand to the Nenagh throw, Dylan Donnellan carried hard up the middle, followed by another carry from Niall Smyth up the right. When the ball went right to left, Donnellan made a superb burst for the posts and found Tadgh Bird in support for a classic try. Con Kelly added the conversion for 7 – 15.