I’d like to tell a tale of  a fantastic try that drove a stake through the heart of a game Naas team,  playing on their home patch, against us in the second round of the Town’s Cup last Sunday.  We had finished the first half 13 points to the good, thanks to the alertness and strength of Niall Duggan and the boot of Karl Darragh. On the resumption Naas RFC attacked all out for a full fourteen minutes.  5m inside his own half, David Hogan gained possession ...... looking around like the Roadrunner cockerel that he is, he set off along the touchline furthest from the Pavilion  in the direction of the town ........   accelerating,  he  looped  back towards the pavilion  beating three  coyotes .....  between the 10m  and the 22m line a fortuitous hand trip brought him down but as he hit the ground he off loaded to Mick Byrne running at full speed for the far corner ....... when confronted , Mick  passed to Ben who drew his man before passing to Padraig Mahon and Zip we were eighteen points up against the run of play!

 

Naas had the moves and the intentions alright, but alas for them, they came up against a triple XXX  Thistle Cutting  Machine  made up of Ben Swindlehurst, Austin Cella and Niall Duggan who  mowed down green and white attackers for sport.  There was also another issue militating against them experiencing even a modicum of joy..... an issue by the name of Jon Downey who cut through the Naas defence time and again like a hot poker through goose fat, - a typical Downey surge four minutes after Padraig’s try, finished  in an off load to our afore mentioned ‘Roadrunner’  who zipped in under the posts  ..... within the space of four minutes we were 25 points up. All through the match our two ‘oul dogs in the engine room’ (Colly O Brien and Terry Donnelly) hewed wood and drew water at an intensity that wore down the opposition. 

 

Padraig, our right winger normally doesn’t bother too much with shimmies or jinkies but 30 minutes into the second half, he stepped  a beautiful mystical step that flummoxed his opposite number,- all of a sudden, Naas were looking at a 32 point deficit with ten minutes to go. I don’t know how they found it within themselves to mount the almighty effort they unleashed for the last ten minutes but, on the day we were not for yielding. Instead on the death, Harry Murphy broke from within his own half, to touch down for a 39-0 victory that was as sweet as it was hard earned.

 

The ball -  it bounces that bit higher once Valentine’s Day  is past. Our little babies love the bit of firmness in the sod, the days are brightening , the ju ju is rising....... Our Firsts definitely have three , maybe even five competitive matches left  ..... It might just be a very interesting end of term. Oh Lord God Almighty!

 

PS . Monkstown RFC  come to Rosetown this Friday night. A perusal of the Leinster League 1A table informs they are positioned on the trap door to relegation. Nothing less than victory will save them from damnation.  Newbridge need to win to stay in the top four.  Holy Moly!