Corinthians head to the Mardyke for promotion play-off semi-final
Ambrose Conboy’s side aiming to take next step towards promotion
Corinthians head to Cork tomorrow to take on UCC at the Mardyke in their AIL Division 2A play-off semi-final (2.30pm), with the winners facing either Shannon or Dungannon in the final for a place in Division 1B next season.
Corinthians are going into this game in good form. Wins at the back-end of the regular season including crucial bonus point wins in Ballymena and Banbridge saw them back in contention and while it took a Barnhall win over Wanderers to copper fasten the place in the playoffs, it was no more than what was deserved for the side coached by Ambrose Conboy and Tommy Ellard.
However, the challenge ahead will not be an easy one. Their opponents finished second from bottom in 1B and were unfortunate to end up where they did and they will be determined to keep their status at home.
With the former Munster and Ireland scrum half Tomas O’Leary at the helm and featuring players like Sean Edogbo and Charlie O’Shea, they will be dangerous and Corinthians will have to be at the top of their game to counter their threat.
“We understand the serious challenge that UCC will deliver this weekend against and we are looking forward to that challenge as a group," Conboy said.
“They ran Instonians close, they were just shy against Old Wesley, and they beat Garryowen two weeks ago and there was nothing really between 5th and 9th in that division so it's a big challenge for us.”
However, there is a lot that Corinthians are bringing to tomorrow's game, and it was something that the Corinthians coach wanted to point out.
“We are on a bounce of five in a row. We are happy with the way we played in Banbridge last time out and are taking a lot of positives from that.
“Our set-piece has gotten a lot better, particularly at scrum time so we are happy in the direction that is going. We have conceded one try in the last three games per game so that is a good place for us to be and in attack have consistently got increasing numbers, so they are all positives for us.
"We will focus on that and control what we can control. They have good players, but we will just focus on ourselves, and we are all looking forward to that challenge.”
This has all the hallmarks of being a real battle up front. UCC have a solid front row with Darragh O’Connell, Stephen Shaughnessy and Daniel McCarthy up front against Garryowen and they will look to dominate from the start.
However, the Corinthians front three of Rory Lyons, Ian Staunton and Patrick Fahy have also been excellent and this could be one of the battles of the day.
Elsewhere in the forwards, Sean Edogbo is a class act in the back row, but Corinthians have equally as good in Max Flynn with Mark Boyle expected to play the captain’s part for the visitors.
The battle of the backs is where it will be exciting.
UCC’s Charlie O’Shea and Evan Clarke have been excellent all season but again, their opposite numbers in Billy Cross and Ned Williams are top class players and that is not even looking at both centre pairings who love to run with the ball and are capable of creating havoc on their opponents defences.