Balreask Old club enhance French connection

Navan RFC u-14s did the club proud when they took part in a tournament close to the city of Toulouse, the home of French club rugby. A party of 48 people in total travelled on this bi-annual tour which included 24 players. The Balreask Old side were entered in a 12-a-side tournament on the Saturday hosted by Sporting Club Rieumes Ecole de Rugby. There were two groups of six teams and Navan started cold, somewhat overawed by the occasion and coming to grips with the rules and how best to play their French counterparts. They were defeated 0-4 by Villefranche de Lauragais (the eventual winners). The Navan boys did however, turn on the style to defeat the host side Rieumes 6-0 as the miserable wet conditions began to take their toll. As the only non-French side in the tournament Navan drew a lot of attention from the stand full of local followers. Navan were on the winning trail again when they defeated a good Cazeres outfit 2-1 with tries from Fergal Cleary and Gareth McGrane while Stephen Keelan scored Navan"s sole try in the next group game which ended in a draw with Isle Jourdain. The Navan boys knew their final divisional match was against the highly-rated Stade Toulousain side and both teams locked horns from the start and some great rugby was produced. The locals were given a very dubious-looking try which would have necessitated the fourth official if it were in the professional game. This was enough to separate the sides though the Navan coaches Kenny Keelan and Brian McCormack were thrilled with their team"s performance throughout. Navan went on to a play-off against Tarbes and won 3-0 to finish sixth overall from the 12 teams. A fair achievement considering that all French teams had six months age advantage over Navan. After the presentations - where Navan received two trophies for their efforts - the party then headed to Trevor Brennan"s restaurant where they met the legendary Barnhall stalwart who stood for numerous photographs and spoke to the group about their rugby. Navan past President Brian Coyle made a presentation to Brennan on behalf of the group. On the Saturday the group travelled by coach to Cite d"Espace - a space age theme park on the outskirts of Toulouse - where they experienced walking on the moon, walking through Mir stations, planetarium and Imax experiences. Navan panel - F Cleary, J Condie, N Conaty, A Carpenter, J Herward, C O"Reilly, N O"Reilly, W Tiernan, T Pretorious, C Brennan, D Fox; A O"Flynn, A Keating, E McGrane, G McGrane, A Wall, O Molloy, E Noonan, C Smyth, S Keelan, C Coldrick, C Stafford, S Healy, H Keane.