Awesome Athy begin Towns Cup defence
Reigning champions Athy are into the quarter-finals of the Bank of Ireland Leinster Towns Cup following a 57-point demolition of Navan on Sunday afternoon in The Showgrounds. Nine tries from eight different players as well as six conversions off the tee saw the Kildare club coast into the final eight in the competition.
Athy were one of five teams awarded a bye in Round 1, while Navan coasted through the opening weekend with a 23-7 win over Edenderry.
The Meath club’s first team play in the All-Ireland League, so it falls on their seconds to represent the club in the Towns Cup. Navan 2 compete in the Leinster Metro League where they currently occupy top spot in Premier 2 Division 2, while Athy are staring down the barrel of relegation from Division 1A of the Leinster League.
There is plenty of Towns Cup pedigree between these two teams, with holders Athy reaching 16 finals and lifting the trophy on six occasions, while Navan have won 10 of their 15 finals, the most recent of which was in 2008.
There was a strong breeze swirling around The Showgrounds, hampering each sides’ kicking in the early goings.
The home side opened the scoring with a fantastic try in the eighth minute, all started when full back Aidan Henry gathered the ball on his own 22. He showed phenomenal pace evade a score of defenders before bringing the ball all the way to the Navan 22. Athy recycled and quickly went from right to left, stretching the visitors before releasing Daniel Henry, who did well to ground the ball in the left-hand corner.
Athy piled on the pressure and crossed for a second try after quarter of an hour. They won a scrum just in front of the posts and went wide wide, with Josh Miller feeding Aidan Henry who raced over for the try. Miller converted to make it 12-0.
Navan were in free-fall and coughed up another try just three minutes later when Tom Sheedy ran on to a lovely pass inside from captain Craig Miller, with the big centre charging over under the posts, leaving a routine conversion for his midfield partner, Josh Miller. 19-0 after 19 minutes.
The game was over as a contest with 22 minutes gone when hooker Niall O’Hanlon powered over for try number four, all without Navan firing a shot. The Meath club spent the next five minutes in Athy’s 22, but were sent packing without moving the scoreboard.
Athy were throwing the ball around for fun in the final ten minutes of the half, and when that didn’t work they went to their power game, sending one-out runners to attack the Navan line. The visitors escaped without conceding any more points, as Athy finished 24-0 up at half time.
Navan were fast out of the blocks after the break and used their impressive phase play to hold possession in Athy territory. It took them until the 50th minute, but a pick-and-go from replacement lock Thomas Clarke finally saw the visitors open their account.
But Athy cancelled that out immediately, with big carries from Jack Henry, winning his 50th cap for the club, Niall O’Hanlon and Tom Brady all making the space for Eoin Farrell to go over beside the uprights. Josh Miller’s third successful conversation put 26 points between the sides with 25 minutes remaining.
Another big carry from O’Hanlon came soon after, gathering a stray Navan lineout before offloading to the rapid Cathal Fennessy, who raced over for a sixth Athy try before Miller slotted the conversion.
The hosts never took their foot off the accelerator and drove over for another try with 11 minutes remaining as O’Hanlon touched down for his second try after some huge carries in the corner from Sean Nolan and Tom Brady.
Navan kept going to the very last whistle and crossed for a second try in the dying stages.
But there was still time for Sean Nolan to touch down at the other end for Athy, with Miller adding the extras to bring the hosts up to the half century. And Athy were still not done, with Lochlann Kelleher kicking a loose ball over the line before diving on top of it for yet another five-pointer. A sublime conversion from Miller brought the game to a close. Athy go into the quarter-finals, where they have been handed another home draw, hosting Wexford on Saturday, March 29th.
Aidan Henry (1 try); Cathal Fennessy (1 try), Tom Sheedy (1 try), Josh Miller (6 cons), Daniel Henry (1 try); Craig Miller, Eoin Farrell (1 try); Aaron Rowan, Niall O'Hanlon (2 tries), Conan Dunne; Lochlann Kelleher (1 try), Connor McDonnell; Shane Horgan, John Sheedy, Jack Henry.
Matthew Henry, Karol Donohoe, Tom Brady, Sean Donohoe, Oran Kelleher, Sean Nolan (1 try).
Graham Brennan; Cian Quigley, Luke Dolan, Harry Devlin, Ben Macken; Cormac Horan, Macdara Da Paor; Craig Byrne, Ciarmhac O Fionnaghain, Alessandro Maltese; Rokas Lipinskas, Evan McNamara; Stuart Byrne, Bernard Smith, Andrew Beggy.
Eoin O'Reilly (1 try), Shane O'Connor, Thomas Clarke (1 try), Saul Nicholson, Ciaran Tobin, Jaeic Timmons, Conor Hayes.
Ruaidhri O'Hanlon
