Noel O’Meara is a legend at Ormond and Young Munster

So here we go. David versus Goliath. The big city behemoth versus the small town minnow half an hour up the road. The urban giant versus the rural underdog. The script should write itself. Except it never does.

These games can throw up surprises. Finals often do. After all, isn’t that why these very competitions exist? The league is the league, but the Cup is something entirely different - a tournament with the capacity to generate shocks, shocks which reverberate across the landscape and endow other clubs with a belief that they too can do something special.

But hold on a second. Let’s be honest here. Nenagh Ormond are not expected to win this Munster Senior Cup final. Young Munster currently sit fourth in the Division 1A table. They are among the best amateur rugby clubs in what is technically the best rugby country in the world. The chances of Nenagh turning them over in Thomond Park are invisibly slim. But there is always a chance. So says Noel O’Meara, a man with a unique connection to both clubs, and a man who knows his rugby like few others do.

“Nenagh will have very little experience of playing in Thomond Park, but if they can settle in there and get to grips with their surroundings, if they can relax and not go behind early, there’s always a chance that they could upset them. Nenagh certainly have a lot of strength and a lot of ability in there, so there’s always a possibility,” he said.

Munster

O’Meara currently works as a development officer with Munster rugby. He spends his weekends spinning around the countryside taking in matches and scouting players for the Munster academy. He knows what makes a good player, and he knows what makes a good team. But that’s only half his story.

Back in the halcyon days of his youth, the Nenagh native played for both Ormond and Young Munster. He’s too humble to admit it himself, but he was a blistering centre with a dazzling sidestep and an eye for the try-line.

For years he was among Nenagh’s best players, until he was scouted by Young Munster, prompting a move to the big smoke. He would eventually return to his hometown club, but he spent much of the nineties tearing through opposition defences in the AIL’s top flight, winning an All-Ireland League title in 1993.

He was on the books at Munster briefly, and even represented the province at sevens level - an indicator of his athleticism. He may not have risen to professional level, but along with the likes of Barry Everett, O’Meara was among Nenagh’s most successful graduates in that particular era.

“I played for eight or nine years with Young Munster - from the 1991/92 season right up to 2000, when I went back to Nenagh as a player/coach,” he explains.

“But I would have grown up in Nenagh and played most of my rugby there. I managed to get dual status between Nenagh and UL Bohs then, and I made it onto the Munster Junior team, which was where the Young Munster coach picked up myself and a few others to come and play with them. So, we all signed up with Young Munster then.”

Military lifestyle

Noel O’Meara spent much of those years in the military, living a lifestyle which he says was conducive to playing high-level rugby. He eventually retired early at the age of 38, and quickly evolved into a role as a development officer with Munster Rugby.

Needless to say, the development structures and systems which underpin rugby in the province have advanced dramatically since O’Meara first took on the position. Initially, he was one of just a small number of officers in the entire province. Nowadays Munster, and by extension the entire country, is virtually bursting at the seams with development officers and agents, all of which are dedicated to elevating participation numbers and augmenting playing standards across the country as a whole.

“When I started out as a development officer seventeen years ago there were only two or three of us working in the entire province. Now I’d say we have over twenty in Munster alone,” he continued.

“Then we have community rugby officers working away as well. Most clubs these days have a rugby officer with a connection to Munster, and they’re going around trying to increase playing numbers, pick out players. They’re going into local schools, making connections, getting kids into the clubs. And then us development officers are out there scouting - I spend my weekends taking in games and picking out fifteen or sixteen year-olds for the academy.”

So, what does the Nenagh native make of this final? Does he honestly believe that Nenagh have the capability to cause an upset, or is he more of a realist? In essence, Noel believes this Nenagh team is a seriously talented crop of players. He has seen them perform on several occasions this season, and they’ve impressed him hugely.

“Nenagh have some really good finishers, some really good backs,” he feels.

“And they also have a really good kicker there in Conor McMahon; their scrum-half (Nicky Irwin) is quality as well. But I think a lot depends on who they play at out-half, on who's actually available - Fionn McGibney or Derek Corcoran. Both players are very different in terms of style, so whoever is selected could have a big say on the game itself.”

Gameplan

The gameplan Nenagh Ormond adopt could also prove crucial, O’Meara believes. He cautions against trying to outmanoeuvre or outrun Young Munster. That, he reckons, could lead to disaster. Instead, Nenagh should opt for a territory-based strategy, kicking from deep to try and gain as much ground as possible. If they can concentrate play in the opposition half and avoid falling into defensive traps, then Nenagh may have a fighting chance, according to the former military man.

“For Nenagh to do well in this game, they’re going to have to play a territorial game,” he says.

“They’re going to have to kick for territory and gain ground. I don’t think they’ll be able to just outgun Young Munster from deep, I think they’ll need to go long and play in the right areas of the pitch. Otherwise, they’re going to get caught out.”

Realistically, for Nenagh Ormond to catch Young Munster, several things will have to happen. First and foremost, the Tipp side will have to play out of their skins - they’ll have to execute a near perfect gameplan with minimum errors and maintain consistency over the course of eighty-plus minutes.

Furthermore, they’ll have to hope that Young Munster misjudge them. Complacency is often cited as a potential factor in games such as these, and O’Meara believes that it could have a role in determining the outcome next weekend. He isn’t overly familiar with this current incarnation of Young Munster - he’s only seen them play on one occasion this season. He does, however, know what it is like to enter a final as overwhelming favourites. He cites one example from his time at the Limerick club, when his side suffered a surprise defeat to Cork outfit Sunday’s Well, despite the fact that all the odds were stacked in Young Munster’s favour.

It would be naive to suggest that the Limerick side will treat this game as a walkover, but O’Meara feels that deep down, at the back of the players’ minds, there will be an awareness that Nenagh are only a Division 2A club, two tiers below the Limerick giants. Young Munster are expected to win this game. Their players will expect to win. And sometimes the line between expectation and complacency can become ever so slightly blurred.

“I saw them play against Shannon. And look, when Young Munster are on form they’re right up there alongside some of the best clubs in the country” O’Meara says.

“They’re at the top when they’re on form. But the danger is that they might become complacent, that they almost disrespect Nenagh. Because it’s very easy to get complacent, and if you go out there and your head isn’t right, you can get turned over. So that’s the danger for Young Munster.”

Thomond Park

Another question is how Nenagh Ormond will deal with the surrounds of Thomond Park. The last time they played there was in 2004 when they won their sixth Munster Junior Cup, before being promoted to senior rugby where they have comfortably remained ever since.

However, Thomond Park is a much-changed venue since then following its revamp in the late noughties. The expansive pitch and towering stands will inevitably be a little daunting for the players, many of whom will only ever have entered the stadium as spectators.

Overcoming that initial trepidation will be vital, given that Nenagh need to put together a good start if they are to prevail in this final. And if they do prevail, if after eighty-plus minutes Nenagh Ormond emerge on the winning side, then it will surely go down as one of the greatest moments in the club’s 138 history. It’s a tall order, but it’s also a tantalising prospect. Opportunity beckons for the Tipp team. As O’Meara emphasises, anything is possible.

“If Young Munster don’t show Nenagh the respect they deserve and Nenagh get a good start, anything is possible, anything. If Nenagh could get the first eight or ten points and catch the boys, shake them a bit, then you don’t know how the game could go,” Noel concludes.