Navan earn victory the hard way

SATURDAY marked the first official day of winter however, the conditions at Balreask Old were anything but wintery when both Navan and Tullamore took to the field for this Leinster League Div 1 encounter. Both teams were anxious to maintain their current good form and it was the home side who prevailed, but only after a tough, uncompromising encounter. Navan last played Tullamore in April in the All-Ireland Junior Cup final and it was they who again came away with the spoils. Many in the large crowd of spectators who turned up at Balreask Old on Saturday were anticipating a closely-contested game and they were not disappointed. Tullamore threw everything at Navan from the kick-off and the home side found themselves pinned into their half for the opening 12 minutes. One of the key features of this Navan team is their defensive abilities and they managed to absorb an early period of pressure from Tullamore and slowly claw their way back into contention. On 16 minutes Navan"s sturdy defence and patience was rewarded when Sylvanus Iro broke through the centre of the Tullamore backline. Iro off-loaded to Simon Hogan who showed some deft footwork to change the angle of attack bringing the ball up to the 22-metre line before passing to Mark Harrington who sprinted to the line, touching down to the right of the posts. Ryan Roberts stepped up and slotted over the difficult conversion to leave the Navan side seven points ahead. Tullamore were not about to fold and they continued to apply pressure which resulted in Navan giving away a penalty due to an infringement in the ruck. Tullamore"s out-half, Gearoid O"Grady took an easy three points for his side trailing by just 3-7 after 25 minutes. As the second-half kicked-off both teams tackled ferociously and made big hits in what was a clean, but tough contest. On 61 minutes Navan were awarded a penalty just inside the 10-metre line and Roberts broke the deadlock and confidently punched the ball between the posts extending Navan"s lead to 10-3. Less than five minutes later Navan attacked again, winger Thomas Geraghty took a pass, raced for the line and grounded the ball in the corner. However, he was ruled to have stepped into touch as he grounded the ball and the try was disallowed. Every minute of this game was important to both teams with Tullamore pushing to grab a converted try to draw the game and Navan defending for all they were worth. Navan did not possess their usual cutting edge and it was far from their best performance this year. Navan - E King, C Brady, D King, B Harris, J Duffy, T Clarke, B Smyth; S Iro, C Mattson, R Roberts, S Hogan, A Hickey, R Conaty, M Harrington, K Manning. Subs - T Geraghty for A Hickey, E Dunne for E King, J Baker for C Brady, S Dawson for T Clarke. New Ross 8 Ashbourne 3 Ashbourne left this Leinster League Div 2 game behind them when they lost out to hosts New Ross on Sunday. A draw would probably be been a fairer result with Ashbourne left disappointed that a try was not rewarded after Jeff Mahon looked to have grounded the ball in the dying moments. However, the referee, who had an overall excellent game, felt Mahon had been held up and New Ross claimed victory after an entertaining, fast and physical encounter. Due to injuries, Ashbourne had a new front row combination in place with captain James McCaghy moving to prop and John Gavin coming in as hooker. The other prop Colm McMahon also made his first league start of the season. This also meant that Dave McManus replaced Gavin in the back row for his first start. Within a minute the home pack was under pressure and was adjudged to have collapsed the first scrum, on the halfway line. Andy Munn"s attempted penalty was left and wide, but the sequence of events set the tone in the set piece situations. There was little of note until the pivotal moment of the game in the 24th minute. Ashbourne conceded a penalty, but assumed that New Ross were going for goal. Their out-half tapped the ball and put their centre over in the corner for an unconverted try, despite the best efforts of man-of-the-match Mahon and winger Eddie Conaty. Ashbourne raised their game in the second-half and started running the ball better through the backs. Excellent for Ashbourne were Mahon, Colreavy, Matt Ward and McCaghy. Ashbourne - D Colreavy, J Scarff, M Ward, P Mullen, E Conaty, A Munn, S O"Neill; J McCaghy, J Gavin, C McMahon, J Mahon, I Power, D McManus, C Glennon, P Hall. Ashbourne"s Provincial Seconds game was cancelled as no referee turned up. The Ashbourne thirds were defeated by Athboy at home on Friday night.