Cork Con’s chase for spot in top four still on
AIL RUGBY
By Daire Walsh
CORK Constitution’s All-Ireland League play-off aspirations remain alive, after they managed to move back into the top-four by securing a losing bonus point in a 27-20 defeat to Lansdowne on the Aviva Stadium’s back pitch last Saturday afternoon.
Con head coach Tom Tierney (who is also in the charge of the Ireland Women’s senior side) was pleased with many aspects of the team’s play, but did feel some missed tackles at vital moments ultimately proved costly.
“We did a lot of very good things there today. Played some very, very good rugby, but unfortunately at critical stages we missed tackles and in fairness to Lansdowne, they’re too good not to get those opportunities,” Tierney remarked.
“Very disappointing in relation to how well we played, but we did get a bonus point, and at this stage of the season now it’s absolutely critical.”
With Ballynahinch and UCD suffering defeats of their own, it makes matters extremely interesting in the Ulster Bank League’s top-flight. Indeed, with just five points separating fourth-place Con and second-from-bottom St Mary’s College, Tierney believes that the final two games will be season-defining.
“It makes the last two matches absolutely season-defining. The results did go our way. We’re in the top-four now. If you were to ask me at the start of the year with two games to go that we were in fourth position for a place-off spot, I would have taken it.
“We’ll take a bonus point. We’re in a better position now than we were before the match and only two matches to go. We’ve got another huge game in three weeks’ time against Clontarf and that’s going to be a massive, massive game.”
There certainly were plenty of positives for Con to take from the contest, and by scoring three tries against the league’s in-form outfit, Tierney can see that his charges are doing their utmost to work on the offensive side of their game.
“Absolutely. It’s something that we’ve been trying to work on. Our points for is not as high as we’d like to be. We had a good opportunity there to play on a very fast pitch. We scored some very good tries. We got one lucky one, but you take all those.
“To score three tries against a team like Lansdowne is very pleasing. Unfortunately, we didn’t get an opportunity to maybe get a fourth, but we’ll take what we’ve got and move on,” Tierney added.