Pictures: Sinead Sugrue and Colin Counihan
Stephen O’Brien reports
CORK club Midleton made the trek to Killarney to take on as ever-improving local squad in the first round of the Munster Under-16 Cup.
Early exchanges were fierce and on the 15-minute mark good attacking backline play put Killarney within sight of the line and a strong carry through the tackle by centre Shane O’Sullivan brought him just close enough to force his way over get the ball down for the opening try of the day.
Just before half-time Killarney managed to grind their way to the Midleton line and once again came away with points with tighthead Dylan O’Brien on hand following a series of bruising exchanges to give the home side a 12-0 lead.
When play resumed, Killarney got back in the groove to turn the screw once again and after 13 minutes of the second half, Tomás Chambers put real daylight between the teams as he clinically capitalised on a very solid scrum to pick and go from the base, scorching through the heart of the Midleton defence to touch down under to posts.
It put Killarney into the lead at 19-0 with the conversion added by Shane O’Sullivan.
Dara Stack, who was brought in to replace the injured Gearoid Sugrue at scrum half, made his presence felt as he ruthlessly intercepted during a Midleton attack and sprinted home from halfway to secure the win at 26-0.
A break in matches over the Christmas period will give the team plenty of time to prepare for the next game which takes place at Aghadoe on January 8 when Highfield come to town with kick-off at 12.30pm.
Killarney: Mark Kennelly, Jack Donoghue, Shane O’Sullivan, Scott Carlton (captain), Sam Dennehy, Bryan Walsh, Gearoid Sugrue, Adam Lynch-Herlihy, Alex Courtney-Sheehan, Dylan O’Brien, Kris O’Leary-Sacristan, Ciarán Doyle, Gearóid O’Connor, Connie Counihan, Tomás Chambers, Ronan Bennett, Pierce Leslie, Jake Leahy, Senan Cotter, Tomás Swords, Colm Janot, Muiris O’Donoghue, Dara Stack, Cian Russell.
