Bandon Grammar 20
CBC 12
FOR the first time in their history Bandon Grammar School has won a Munster rugby schools cup.
The West Cork school hit the headlines when they stunned 19-time winners Christian Brothers College in the Munster junior schools cup final in Virgin Media Park.
A famous institution that includes amongst their past pupils rugby trailblazers such as Jack Crowley, Gavin Coombes and Darren Sweetnam now has new heroes.
Led by their coach Philip Murphy, Bandon Grammar have gone from dreamers to believers.
Bandon Grammar's Mark Whelton is tackled by Cormac McCabe of CBC.‘We’re still floating on air a bit here,’ Murphy told the Star Sport Podcast.
‘We are just thrilled, proud and enjoying the buzz around the school. There has been an outpouring of Bandon Grammar love in the last couple of days. People who have never seen a rugby ball before, people who are big into their rugby. Everybody feels a part of it. That’s really lovely.’
Bandon Grammar is playing its role in the rise of West Cork rugby, the school’s success just a week after Sacred Heart Clonakilty won the girls’ senior and junior double.
‘It’s funny because this particular team is the most West Cork team that you will ever see. I was going through the squad, I hadn’t realised during the year, but we actually have a member from every rugby club in West Cork on the squad. Kinsale. Bandon. Clon. Dunmanway. Skibbereen. Bantry. They’re all represented which I think is phenomenal. Then to add to that, we have actually trained and played matches against pretty much all those clubs throughout the season as well. They too have ownership of this win,’ Murphy explained.
Bandon's Louis Dukelow celebrates.This Munster junior cup triumph has put the school back in the headlines, and also shows what’s possible. In addition, this will give confidence to Bandon Grammar’s senior team that will hope to earn provincial honours in the top grade soon.
‘When you do anything for the first time, there is a niggling thing at the back of your head. “Is there some secret sauce that we don’t know about? Is there something that we don’t have as part of the recipe that isn’t getting us over the line?” A lot of satisfaction in knowing that isn’t a secret sauce and that we are ticking the right boxes,’ Murphy added.
‘Pride is definitely the big one. There are people from all over the world getting in contact with the school in the last couple of days.’
The Grammar is steeped in top-class graduates who passed through the school hallways. The school now has honours to show, but that wouldn’t have been possible without great work being put in behind the scenes.
‘We have loads of heroes here. Rugby didn’t start yesterday or today in Bandon Grammar and there is loads of work done. I suppose being able to put a bit of structure around what we were doing in rugby,’ Murphy explained.
‘We put a plan together four or five years ago, a really solid plan to dig a bit deeper with our first, second and third years. That plan is coming to fruition now. We had a really good junior team last year. They’re gone into the senior cup set-up now. We’re just pushing up another really good crop again. They’re all pushing each other. The standard is going up and up all the time. Belief is going up all the time,’ the junior coach said.
Bandon Grammar's Alex Bramoullé celebrates.The decider against CBC started brightly for Bandon, against the wind, as flanker Shane Murphy battered his way over the line to get their first try after eight minutes.
Jamie Hicks, younger brother of Ireland underage international Dylan, provided the finishing conversion for an ideal start.
A Hicks penalty four minutes later pushed them 10-0 up inside a quarter of an hour.
CBC got on the board after 20 minutes when winger Seán Riordan crossed the whitewash with Harry Quinlan converting. Riordan crashed over once more on 30 minutes, leaving the West Cork school 12-10 down heading to the dressing rooms.
Billy Canniffe with the Munster junior cup.‘We were actually pretty content with the first half. It would have been silly to think that CBC wouldn’t come at us. They have so much talent, they’re well drilled,’ Murphy explained.
‘Part of our preparation is preparing for the hard parts of games, it’s not all going to be a purple patch. We were actually very happy at half-time. We had executed, we had scored, we got points on the board. We were down two points at half-time but we knew we had the wind. We knew we had a good plan and ultimately we knew we had the players. The lads were cool out.’
A marvellous second-half display was the winning of this game as the West Cork school outscored their counterparts 10-0. Hicks gave Bandon Grammar the lead on 39 minutes with a penalty to nudge them in front before a rolling maul sent Alex Coleman over in the 49th minute.
Hicks added the conversion, giving the West Cork outfit an eight-point buffer to defend.
A memorable day for all involved and it epitomised that West Cork rugby continues to progress.
Bandon Grammar School: Louis Dukelow; Christopher Woodland, Éanna Burke, Jamie Coughlan-Hicks, Alex Bramoullé; Billy Canniffe, Dylan L’Estrange; Daniel Burke, Alex Coleman, Bobby Hayes; Isaac Wade, Mark Whelton (captain); Shane Murphy, Daniel Kent, Matthew Buttimer.
Replacements: Joey Canniffe, Daniel Kingston, Simon Guest, Emmet O’Connor, Nick Baker, Feidhlim McCarthy, Jack Hurley, Jack Gilsenan, Billy O’Leary, Jos Keating.
Christian Brothers College: Hugh Downey; Sean Riordan, Rossa Kinirons, Shea Lynch, Max O’Riordan; Harry Quinlan, Tiernan Murphy; Christian Murphy, Jack Punch, Danny Field; Alex Maher, Ciaran Kelly; Louis Carroll, Cormac McCabe; Ruaidhri McElwaine.
Replacements: Dalton Carren, Cathal Coyne, Luke Daly, Mike Keane, Harry Loftus, Christophe Murphy, Mike Murphy, James Earle, Reuben Ring, James Healy.
