Once in a while, there really can be no disputing the match of the day. Such a day occurs this coming Saturday, when the full 25-match, penultimate round of the Energia All-Ireland League happens to throw up a summit meeting between first and second in Division 1A, which also happens to be a repeat of the last two finals.
Leaders Clontarf, champions two years ago, head to Lakelands Park to face Terenure, who are two points behind them. Clontarf beat Terenure in the final two seasons ago, but Terenure avenged that defeat with a 50-24 victory in last season’s decider at the Aviva Stadium in front of an 8,642 attendance to win their first AIL title. Although both community clubs are already guaranteed a place in the semi-finals, aside from bragging rights in what has been dubbed the “new classico”, the stakes are high.
Despite Terenure’s superb win over Constitution last Saturday in Temple Hill from 14-0 down, admittedly against 14 men, the Cork club sit just a further point behind the champions and host fifth-placed Ballynahinch on Saturday.
In the final round on Saturday week, Clontarf host bottom-placed Trinity, while Terenure and Con travel north to Ballynahinch and City of Armagh, so there may be another twist or two yet. But next Saturday’s winners at Lakelands Park will be well placed to have a much-coveted home semi-final, while the losers could well face a trek in the last four to Cork.
“It’s a rematch of the last two finals and it’s always an absolute slog when we play each other”, says the long-serving Terenure scrumhalf Alan Bennie.
“We went there earlier in the season and they got us back for last year’s final”, he adds in reference to Clontarf’s 26-16 win in Castle Avenue last October.
“It’s first v second; there’s going to be professional players playing from two of the best squads in the All-Ireland League over the last three years. In a way, I look upon it as a clash of the Titans, and it’s great that at this stage of the season there is still so much on the line. And playing in front of 3 or 4,000 people at Lakelands, in front of your community, what more could you want for the second last game of the regular season?”
Terenure’s 1B champions from 2015 will be in attendance as well as the school’s Senior Cup and Junior Cup squads for what is also becoming Terenure’s annual charity match in aid of Childline by ISPCC and the Children’s Health Foundation. It’s a concept inspired by the charity work of their prop Adam Tuite, whose sister Claire spent three years in CHI at Crumlin before passing away in 2017.
In recognition of the support given the Tuite family by the Children’s Hospital, the Terenure prop took part in the annual fundraising charity called “the Freezebury Challenge”. Swimmers endure the cold waters of rivers, lakes and seas in and around Ireland every day in February, for at least one minute on the 1st through to 28 minutes on the 28th.
Tuite helped raise €60,000 over three years on foot of which Bennie and some of his team-mates organised a charity match in aid of the above causes when Terenure hosted Lansdowne last season.
This involved auctioning a set of one-off replica white jerseys which Terenure wore against Lansdowne (with the named charities on each sleeve) and raised €10,000. Replica white jerseys will be auctioned again on Saturday, along with collection buckets, the presence of the Six Nations trophy and an online collection for those who cannot make it to Lakelands Park.
But you’d need a good reason not to be there.
