Tullow beat Kilkenny RFC in the Bank Of Ireland Provincial Towns Cup final in Athy RFC yesterday
The tension and passion were evident as Tullow RFC faced off against Kilkenny RFC in this year’s Bank Of Ireland Provincial Towns Cup final yesterday. Kilkenny went into the game as defending champions. Tullow was looking for their second title having previously won it in 2017 while Kilkenny was looking for number seven.
Tullow started the brightest and had the Kilkenny scrum under severe pressure which resulted in numerous penalties for the Carlow side early on and went into the break with a 17-6 lead. Things got better for Tullow in the second half and made it 24-6 with just a few minutes on the clock. Kilkenny never gave up, they started to put a few phases together and they got their just rewards bringing the score back to 24-20 with time just up. Kilkenny was now dominant in the game and Tullow was hanging on by a thread. With one last play on the cards, Kilkenny was almost over the line but a wayward pass to Hugh Corkery was knocked on and the referee blew the final whistle.
Former Irish International Sean O’Brien who is working with Leinster as their skills coach was in South Africa with the team as they prepared to take on the Bulls but flew back overnight to be on the sideline to watch his team claim victory.
Speaking to Brendan Hennessy and the KCLR team after the game
“It was an unbelievable game of rugby to be fair to Kilkenny we always knew they were going to come back, we spoke about it at halftime that they would have their purple patch and they did, they’re a quality side they’re a 1A side and I know they didn’t have a great year this year but they’ve had a good run in the last few weeks they’re very tough lads, they pushed us right to the very end and it could have gone either way”.
“It’s brilliant, we had a good plan during the week about how to attack them and we showed some of that in the first half there are lots more growth in this team, they’re a bunch of young guys, and it’s the first year playing this kind of rugby, we would have been known for ten-man rugby, now we’re trying to move the ball around a bit, it’s exciting for what lies ahead for this team”.
