Crescent head coach: Underdog mentality might suit us against Christians

For many it has already been decided that the Munster Senior Schools Cup final will be contested by Christian Brothers College and Presentation Brothers College, again.

For many it is hard to see past the two Cork rivals, who have gone head-to-head in two of the last three showpiece occasions and are currently joint top of the competition’s roll of honour on 31 titles apiece, meeting in yet another decider.

But Crescent College Comprehensive will have something to say about that.

St Munchin’s College will too when they take on PBC on Wednesday afternoon in the other semi-final but before that Crescent – the 2022 winners – will be looking to eliminate Christians when they clash at Virgin Media Park on Tuesday afternoon (kick-off is at 1.30pm).

“There’s no doubt about it that they will be the favourites going into it, but we will have a say on that,” says head coach Lee Nicholas, who was also in charge when they lifted the silverware almost two years ago.

But Nicholas and his side are fully aware of the challenge that they face against Christians. The two teams have already met this campaign and Crescent were comprehensively beaten 34-14 on their own ground back in October.

“It’s going to be a really physical encounter,” added Nicholas.

“To get to a cup semi-final is huge for us so we are really looking forward to it. We’re going to Cork, we’re on the road so we know are backs are to the wall, but it might suit us the old underdog mentality.

“They’re a very good Christians team with a number of Irish representatives and almost 15 Munster representatives so I think it’s fair to say that we are the underdogs.

“We will go down and we will give it a shot. It will be a big battle up front physically but I think our boys have the matching off them.

“Then out wide it is about stopping that Christians backline. On top of their big, physical pack they also have a number of representative players in the backline so they are quite stacked there but we will give it a shot.”

The Irish Examiner will have live streaming coverage of this year's Munster Schools Boys Senior Cup semi-finals.

Subscribers can watch CBC play Crescent College Comprehensive at 1:30pm on Tuesday, February 20th and then PBC face St Munchin's at 2pm on Wednesday, February 21st.

Christian Brothers College: Ronan O’Keefe; Alex O’Connell, Leo O’Leary, Gavin O’Riordan, Bill McCarthy; Charlie Patrick O’Shea, Christopher Barrett; Denis Callaghan, Darragh Prenter, Cian Walsh; Michael Foy, Mark Skelly, Conor Galvin, Joseph Barrett, Daniel Rock.

Replacements: Craig Hughes, Ronan O’Callaghan, Sean McDonald, Robert O’Sullivan, Jacob Lane, Ian Morton, Cian Boylan, Cian Corkery, Aidan Brady, Daire O’Callaghan.

Crescent College Comprehensive: Fionn Rowsome; Ryan Scanlon, Michael O’Mara, Ben Gallagher, Samuel Jordan; Evan Cusack, Andrew Clery; Ronan Ryan, Jonathan Byrne, Cathal Lanigan Ryan; Oran Copley, Conor Ryan (c); Charlie Fenton, Tom O’Brien, Cormac Quinn.

Replacements: Michael O’Brien, Nathan O'Riordan, Aleks Reddan, Darragh McKeogh, Jayden Carmody, Daniel Magee, Rory O'Connor, Gerry Joyce, Harry McDonogh, Rafael Junior Okafor.