Ashbourne advance to the next round of Towns" Cup

Ashbourne advanced to the next round on the Provincial Towns Cup with a spirited effort against a strong and well-drilled Portarlington side at Milltown on Saturday evening. Having defeated Ashbourne in the league six days earlier, Porttarlington were confident of advancing, but the Meath side produced a much better performance and were worthy winners. Ashbourne started with confidence and put early pressure on the visitors. They struck with an unconverted try after five minutes when Ciaran Glennon was driven over the line by his powerful pack. Portarlington showed flair in their backline and caused Ashbourne plenty of defensive problems. The visitors Australian out-half combined well with his centres and they had pace on the wing, but in the pack it was a different picture where Ashbourne had control. The return of Colm McMahon and Phil Hall in the pack gave the home side a big boost. At scrums they held the upperhand and in the line-out Ashbourne were holding their own and spoiling clean ball on the Portarlington put in. James McCaghy enjoyed an excellent outing as he led from the front while man-of-the-match Ollie Ennis showed all his experience with veteran Jeff Mahon also impressing. After Glennon"s early try Portarlington replied with a penalty after 11 minutes. Bryan Donnelly restored Ashbourne"s advantage to 8-3 with a penalty from 10 metres. As half-time approached Ashbourne received a significant boost when Portarlington were reduced to 14 men for a red card after a stamping incident. It took Ashbourne a while to take advantage of their numerical supremacy and it was the visitors who struck next with a try to take a 10-8 interval lead. Ashbourne were not helped when Ian Power was sin-binned after the resumption, but as time wore on Portarlington tired and Ashbourne took advantage. Portarlington did manage to stretch their lead to 13-8 before they faded as Ashbourne were restored to their full complement. After a period of intense Ashbourne pressure John Gavin"s drive and pass to Mahon set the veteran up for an unconverted try. . With extra-time on the cards Portarlington were awarded a relieving penalty, but a rash decision by a Portarlington player led to the referee reversing the decision and instead it was Ashbourne who won the penalty, which Donnelly converted to seal the win for the Meath side. Ashbourne will now travel to the winners of next week"s Game between North Kildare and Kilkenny. Ashbourne - A Munn, D Colreavy, M Ward, P Mullen, E Conaty, B Donnelly, K Kennedy; O Ennis, J McCaghy, C McMahon, S E Kennedy, J Mahon, I Power, C Glennon, P Hall. Subs - S O"Neill, E Greene, S Magee, E Gallagher, J Gavin. UNDER-12 Navan"s u-12 teams hosted Armagh on Saturday morning and Greystones on Sunday morning. The Lions had two fine wins. They dispatched Armagh 6-4 with the Navan tries coming from Thomas O"Reilly, James McKeown, Conor Jennings, Jack McConnell, Ciaran Taylor and Robert Fox. This was followed up a fine 9-6 victory over Greystones in a Metro match. The Navan scores came from James McKeown (two), Nat Stack (two), Conor Jennings, Jamie McAleese, Robert Fox, Thomas O"Reilly and Shane Gallagher. The Tigers were defeated 3-6 by Armagh despite scores from John Morley (two) and Conor Hand. Despite this defeat the lads came out and gave a masterful display on Sunday morning to defeat their Metro opponents Greystones by 7-3. The Navan scorers were John Morley (three), Ronan Scott (two), Thomas Blake and Corentin Bled. Lions - J McConnell, K Lynch, C Taylor, J McAleese, S Walshe, R Fox, T O"Reilly, O Lavin-Kelly, A McGoey, S Gallagher, N Stack, C Farrell, C Jennings. C Honan, J McKeown. Tigers - T Blake, E Sheridan, S Brady, F Smyth, T Maloney, P Doherty, T Hamilton, C Hand, C Moore, R Scott, R Sheridan, J Morley, D Gordon, C Banahan, L Irwin, B McEvoy, C Bled, C Byrne, E Lynch, C Otoadinna, C Bled. UNDER-11 Navan"s u-11"s travelled to St Mary"s, Dublin on Sunday for the latest round of Metro fixtures. The Orange team met their opposition head on with good defensive tackling. The first try came after seven minutes from Luke Morgan-Doherty and set the tone of the game as the Navan side strolled to an easy 6-1 win. The Green team played a very defensive game with strong tackling and excellent rucking to prevent St Mary"s from scoring a number of tries before the hosts finally broke through. The Navan side responded well, but despite going close they lost out 0-2. Orange - B Conlon, JJ O"Dea, B McEntaggart, J Love, H O"Sullivan, P Weldon, C Nash, C Birmingham, D Ahern, A Crowe, L Morgan-Doherty, F Searle. Green - G Monaghan, M Rattigan, W Bellew, L Sheridan, M Doherty, F Finegan, E Reid, R Lynch, J Harte, E Sweeney, S Coogan, E O"Kelly Lynch, F Toomes.