Near-miss for Naas in narrow loss up north against quick-fire Queens
After their victory over Highfield in the previous round of fixtures, Naas travelled to Belfast on Saturday afternoon in buoyant form to face Queens University in the Energia All-Ireland League Division 1B.
Although defeat was to be their lot, Naas left Ulster with two points, which could easily have been four or even the maximum five had certain 50/50 decisions gone the other way.
This game was played on a glorious winter’s afternoon with the perfect conditions and two sides intent on playing open, attacking rugby this led to a marvellous game.
Naas suffered a set-back in the warm up when Tom Bohan had to withdraw due to injury, leading to Paddy Taylor moving to fly half and Dylan O’Keeffe coming in off the bench.
However despite this disruption they were in front within five minutes. After Queens were penalised for a high tackle, the subsequent penalty was dispatched to touch. Oisin Halpin secured the line-out and after a series of pick and goes by the pack, the ball was moved out to the backs, where a great offload by Paddy Taylor created space out on the left wing for Donal Conroy to score. Taylor added the conversion, giving Naas a dream start.
The visitors suffered a set-back after 19 minutes when Paulie Tolofua received a yellow card for a high tackle and Queens penalised this indiscretion immediately. They set up a driving maul from the penalty, which Naas were unable to contain and saw
Henry Walker crash over for a try. Dan Green added the conversion to level the scoring.
Within four minutes Naas were back in front when a great line taken by Donal Conroy sliced the home defence apart, before he passed to Paddy Taylor who scored under the posts. The latter converted his own try, but Queens responded straight away.
The visitors failed to deal with the restart, some quick hands by the home attack moved the ball wide to Jonny Scott who showed great pace to score. Dan Green kicked the conversion and teams were level again at 14 points each.
Naas took the lead for the third time when a great scrum forced the Queens pack to collapse it and Paddy Taylor made no mistake with the resulting penalty, but just on half-time the visitors suffered another blow. After a tackle by Eoin Walsh the referee Stuart Douglas had no hesitation in reaching into his pocket and brandished a yellow card to the Naas player.
Queens ruthlessly exploited their numerical advantage. They again set up a driving maul from the penalty and when this was stopped by Naas, Henry Walker broke away from the base of it to dive over.
Then, in first-half injury time, the hosts went through a series of phases which sucked in the Naas defence, before spinning the ball wide out to Adam Hewitt who scored unopposed. Dan Green added both conversions to leave the home side in front at the interval on a scoreline of 28-17.
Green was again on target with the boot when kicking a penalty after 44 minutes to extend the Queens advantage, and it appeared that they had finished the game as a contest when scoring another try after 49 minutes. This time Ryan Street broke clean through in midfield before passing to Wilhelm de Klerk, who in turn shipped the ball on to Adam Hewitt to score. Fo
r the first time all afternoon Dan Green was unable to add the conversion, but his team looked safe leading 36-17.
However, Naas were to stage a tremendous fightback which almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Some great work on the hour mark by the Naas pack drove the home side back and created space out wide for Jack Sheridan to score, and then three minutes later a moment of brilliance by Charlie Sheridan brought Naas right back into the game.
A long kick by Dan Green looked sure to have secured a 50-22 for his side, but Sheridan managed to stretch out and tip the ball back over his own goal-line, preventing the line-out. He then gathered the ball but it looked bleak for him with a blanket of home defenders converging on him. However, he took off on a sublime run that left these defenders in his wake, and he was in the Queens half before he was finally hauled down.
The damage was done though as Naas had plenty of supporting players and a couple of passes later saw Donal Conroy running clear to score. Paddy Taylor converted both tries and Naas were right back in the game trailing by just five points.
It was all Naas now and Queens were holding on for dear life. The Naas pack drove Queens backwards in the scrum yet the penalty went against the visitors, who were then penalised them for obstruction at the line-out when a try looked on the cards.
But the visitors simply ran out of time, and were unable to get the score that would have secured the victory but at least they left with two points – a try scoring and losing bonus point.
These points could be extremely valuable come the end of the season. Next up for Naas is a home fixture against Blackrock College on November 15th at 2.30pm.
James Kerr; Adam Hewitt (3 tries), Wilhelm de Klerk, Ryan Street, Jonny Scott (1 try); Dan Green (1 pen, 4 cons), Clark Logan; Jacob Boyd, Henry Walker (1 try), Bryan O’Connor; Charlie Irvine, Korede Sanusi; Will Cusack, Josh Stevens, Billy Allen.
Jack Parkinson, Tyrese Abolarin, Flynn Longstaff, Kyle Ferguson, Jake Carpenter, Reuben Allen.
Charlie Sheridan; Donal Conroy (2 tries), Dylan O’Keeffe, Tom Monaghan, Jack Sheridan (1 try); Paddy Taylor (1 try, 1 pen, 4 cons), Tadhg Brophy; Stephen Lackey, Brad Clements, Adam Deay; James O’Loughlin, James Stockwood; Oisin Halpin, Eoin Walsh, Paulie Tolofua.
Tadhg Dooley, Tom Adams, Cillian Dempsey, Darragh Murphy, Ethan Travers, Cormac King.
Stuart Douglas.
