Firsts 44 – Naas 17

Galwegians continued their winning ways with a comprehensive 7 try victory of Naas in their AIL clash in Crowley Park on Sat.

On a surprisingly bright but cold and breezy afternoon the home side set out to play expansive rugby, a plan they executed sublimely at times.

Scrum dominance provided the perfect platform for the backs to show swift hands that saw fullback John Cleary make a half break, set up ruck close to the line an then scrum half Caolin Blade fed the on rushing centre Brian Murphy who battered through the last line of defence for the first try of the game after 10 minutes.

Naas were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes a couple of minutes later when their no. 8 was binned for a dangerous tackle.

Surprisingly Wegians were only able to land a Ross Shaughnessy penalty during the 10 minute period.

The momentum was still with the home team and a sumptuous line from prop Ja Naughton saw him cut a swathe through the Naas defense to set up the next score. Number 8 Dan McCabe swapped passes with Naughton, keeping Wegians on the front foot. The ball was spun to Cleary who beat three defenders to score in the corner. The conversion made the score 17 - 0.

The Sky Blues pack showed their dominance with a monster scrum that had the visitors backtracking at a rate of knots before Blade sniped on the blindside and popped a pass to wing Colin Conroy cutting back on the angle to score Wegians third try inside 30 minutes.
The bonus point try came off a rolling lineout maul with prop Jason East powering over from short range right on half time to make the score 27 - 0.

Naas showed their fighting spirit by blasting out of the blocks early in the second half to score a rapid 10 points as Wegians appeared to forget that they were still in a match.
Wegians shook themselves out of their slumber and a creative piece of handling set winger Jerome Harimate scorching down the wing to score in the corner, extending the lead to 22 points.

Murphy showed his game breaking abilities when he created a hole in the Naas defense with his pace and power, he scampered past  the scrambling cover and offloaded to his centre partner Rory Parata to score under the posts and push the score out to 37 - 10.
Naas showed huge pride by continuing to look for scores and they received their just rewards with 5 minutes remaining to bring the points tally to 17.

The final play of the game had a slightly surreal feeling to it as a cross kick from replacement outhalf Dave Clarke initially evaded the outstretched hands of second row Brian McClearn, who was lurking out on the wing, only for it to bounce off the corner flag, over the try line, evading numerous attempts by the defence to secure it before McClearn stretched out a telescopic arm to apply downward pressure for the final try of the game. Clarke struck a sweet conversion to leave the final score Galwegians 44 Naas 17.