ALL IRELAND RUGBY: Malone suffer narrow home loss to Cashel

Malone suffered a third consecutive defeat in Division 2A but did snatch a late bonus point at Gibson Park against Cashel.

Malone took the lead after three minutes when they earned a penalty from a scrum and full back Mark O’Connor slotted over the resulting kick.

Cashel were on level terms five minutes later when centre Pat O’Connor landed a penalty after Malone were punished for not releasing in the tackle.

Malone regained the lead on 28 minutes with the first try of the game.

Hooker Tristan King made a powerful break through midfield creating an overlap on the right wing, the ball was moved through the hands for centre Adam Liddell to score in the corner but Mark O’Connor couldn’t convert.

Pat O’Connor’s second penalty two minutes before the interval cut Malone’s half time lead to 8-6.

Malone had scrum half Shane Kelly sin binned six minutes after the restart for preventing the ball from being quickly released and Pat O’Connor nudged the visitors into the lead with the resulting penalty from in front of the posts.

Cashel increased their lead on 53 minutes, out half Connor Holland gather his own chip to carry into the Malone 22, the ball was spun wide No 8 Ed Leamy drew the last defender before popping the ball to winger Andrew Wallace to dot down in the corner but Pat O’Connor failed to convert from a tight angle.

Pat O’Connor stretched the Tipperary side’s lead with another penalty from a scrum infringement on 64 minutes.

Malone narrowed the gap when skipper Neil Alcorn came round on the blind side of a lineout to score and Mark O’Connor landed the difficult conversion.

Malone could have snatched at the end as they worked the ball through numerous phases but couldn’t manufacture another score and should have been awarded a kickable penalty when the visitors strayed offside.

Malone: M O’Connor, M Barker, A Liddell, M Cartmill, J McMurty, J Pentland, S Kelly; L Barlow, T King, G Crawford, C Tipping, J Alister, J Ogilby, N Alcorn, R Todd

Replacements: B Halliday, D Cave, M Doak, R McCullagh, N Brown

Cashel: T McHale, A Wallace, B Silke, P O’Connor, E Connolly, C Holland, A Barron, J Maxwell, N Fitzgerald, D Lambe, K Gleeson, S Walshe, M Crosse, A Sweeney, E Leamy

Replacements: R Coates, M Kelly, B Crosse, J Frawley, R O’Donnell