ST. MARY’S COLLEGE 16 CORK CONSTITUTION 20, Templeville Road
Scorers: St. Mary’s College: Try: Sean Kearns; Con: Sean Kearns; Pens: Sean Kearns 3
Cork Constitution: Tries: Rob Jermyn, Liam O’Connell, Niall Kenneally; Con: Tomas Quinlan; Pen: Tomas Quinlan
HT: St. Mary’s College 3 Cork Constitution 12
Cork Constitution survived a late onslaught from hosts St. Mary’s College to claim a deserved 20-16 win in their Ulster Bank League opener at Templeville Road.
Con captain Niall Kenneally’s 41st-minute try had put 14 points between the sides and although young out-half Sean Kearns inspired a determined fight-back from Mary’s, they ultimately had to settle for a losing bonus point.
A Kearns penalty on the stroke of half-time was Mary’s only score of the first half, as the Leesiders turned around with a 12-3 advantage.
On their return to Division 1A, Mary’s fell behind to a fifth-minute try from winger Rob Jermyn who crossed in the right corner via neat passes from Kenneally and hooker Max Abbott.
The injury-enforced departure of number 8 Kevin Sheahan, coupled with two penalty misses by Kearns, hampered Mary’s and with 33 minutes on the clock, a powerful break by Kenneally paved the way for winger Liam O’Connell to notch Con’s second try.
A third touchdown followed on the resumption, the impressive Jermyn breaking from deep to send centre Kenneally crashing over. Tomas Quinlan’s conversion was blocked by Terry Kennedy.
Mary’s dug their heels in, however, and Kearns fired over his second penalty. Soon, the visitors lost forwards Ger Sweeney and Conor Kindregan in back-to-back sin-binnings.
Just before Kindregan’s return to the pitch, Kearns sidestepped his way through for a seven-pointer. He increased his influence with a curling penalty in the 73rd minute, cutting the gap to just 17-16.
Mary’s were suddenly hot on Con’s heels, but Brian Hickey’s men eventually prevailed thanks to a coolly-struck injury-time penalty from out-half Quinlan.
ST. MARY’S COLLEGE: Jonathan McDonnell; Terry Kennedy, Ryan O’Loughlin, Ivan Dineen, Mark Fogarty; Sean Kearns, Paddy O’Driscoll; Tom O’Reilly, Hugo Kean, Brian McGovern, Ciaran Ruddock, Cathal O’Flaherty, Nick McCarthy, David Aspil, Kevin Sheahan.
Replacements: Richard Halpin, Emmet Ferron, Daragh Keller, Ian Cullinane, Zach O’Hagan.
CORK CONSTITUTION: Shane Daly; Liam O’Connell, Ned Hodson, Niall Kenneally (capt), Rob Jermyn; Tomas Quinlan, John Poland; Gavin Duffy, Max Abbott, Ger Sweeney, Brian Hayes, Darren O’Shea, Conor Kindregan, Sonny Dwyer, Evan Mintern.
Replacements: Liam O’Connor, Greg Roche, Cian Barry, Jason Higgins, JJ O’Neill.