Temple Carrig Bag Vinnie Murray Quarter Finals

Champs. Nearly.

t was a close call, but Temple Carrig made it through to the Vinnie Murray Cup final four this afternoon with a hard-fought win over Pres Bray.

The battle took place at Energia Park, and the all-Wicklow game could have gone either way.

As coach Mark Crean explains…

It was a real game of of two halves.

Pres were very dominant in the first half, but Temple Carrig fought their way back into the game by scoring two tries in the second half through Cormac Coffee and Janes Smartt, with Thade Shanahan kicking 11 points.

Cillian Burke was the man of the match, but every player for Temple Carrig stood tall and really took the game to Pres in the second half.

That the Greystones lads managed to come back from a first-half 15-3 beating to win the game says a lot about their fighting spirit, the final score being 21-15.

So, hats in the air for Thade Shanahan, Eoin O’Neill, Cian Hingerty (vice captain), Josh Sproul, Colm Condon, Cian Leonard, Paddy Byrne, Steven Salmon, Howard Noonan, Cormac Coffee, Joe Barford, Gerhard Zdunek, Cillian Burke, Jordan O’Connor and Patrick Kiernan (captain). On the subs bench, it was David Prendergast, Joe McSherry, Jude Burke, Oisin Ryan, John O’Connor, James McCormack, James Smartt and Alex Daly.

Congrats to all the coaches and medics, and all those cheering fans pushing the lads on to an important victory at Energia today.

Pics courtesy of Matt Browne/Sportsfile and Irish Film & Television Services.