Senior Interprovincials, May 2015

The Munster Panel for the Interpros 2015 in Belfast was:

A
Philip McSweeney
John Hurley
Dermot MacNamara
Martin J. McDonnell
Mark Furlong

B
Patrick Hanley
Ken O’Keeffe
Paul O’Mahony
Aidan McDonnell
Ivan O’Mahony
Ciarán Maher

Munster 2015 — Left to Right: Paul O’Mahony, Ken O’Keeffe, Ivan O’Mahony, Ciarán Maher, Mark Furlong, Philip McSweeney, Dermot MacNamara, John Hurley, Martin J. McDonnell. (Missing from photo: Patrick Hanley, Aidan McDonnell)

Congratulations to all who made the Munster panel.
Also, special congratulations to our younger members of the panel, Philip, Paul and Ciarán for earning their place on the panel at such young ages, and for their exemplary attitude and behaviour both on and off the court.
They were a credit to their parents all weekend.
It was fantastic to see these youngsters competing successfully at senior level, and they give us great hope for the future.

Unfortunately the strength of the other teams proved too much for us this time around.
We came last in the A and 3rd in the B.

Well done to Ivan O’Mahony as the only player from Munster to win all the matches that he played.
Despite being our only player to win against Leinster on Friday evening, he was controversially dropped by the captain for our 2nd set of matches against Ulster, yet took it in his typical good nature and still showed a positive attitude when called upon to play in our 3rd set of matches against Connacht. He won his match again and tipped the balance for our B Team against Connacht.
A very special mention also has to go to John Hurley for putting in such a fantastic performance, beating both the Ulster and Connacht opposition, and just falling short against the Leinster opponent.
He gave the rest of us great enjoyment and pride to see him winning in the Munster jersey.
The less experienced players (basically all of us!) learned a lot from his example on court.
He showed great tenacity playing with a determined quiet confidence, and used an intelligently measured mix of power and skill to his best advantage against very tough opposition.

The rest of the panel all tried their best to varying success, and credit to all who took to the court, there was not one shred of regret left on court afterwards.
Everybody gave everything they had, and never once dropped their effort, so they can hold our heads high that they represented Munster to the best of their ability.

There is always a bright side, in that Munster are due to host the tournament next season, so we will have time to get training to try to do better next time in front of our home crowd!