Walsh lands late winning try for Athy U18s
Athy celebrate after winning the U18 North Midlands final Photo: Aisling Hyland
Naas and Athy clashed heads in the first match of festival of rugby on Monday 29 in Tougher rugby club, Portlaoise. Both sides started off strong, as Athy kicked off to begin the first half with the wind blowing across the pitch.
It would be Athy who struck first, when scrum half, Colm Moran dodged and weaved his way through the Naas defence to the try line, but his try couldn’t be converted. Athy then doubled their lead as centre Ronan Kelly broke the line with his quick feet and blistering pace and carried the ball over the line whilst being tackled. The conversion made by full back Senan Coffey extended their lead to 12-0 Naas fought back hard to reduce the Athy’s lead. A brilliant kick in behind the Athy defence let the hooker, Harry Dunne, show a great burst of pace to beat out the opposition winger then bump off another player to finish in the corner and get Naas important points on the board.
Athy showed responded back to the Naas score with a penalty calmly slotted between the sticks by Senan Coffey to extend the gap to 15-5 with the last play of the first half as the referee blew his whistle for half time with Athy looking the more comfortable of the two with a ten-point lead.
The second half was a strong a battle as the first half but this time it was Naas who did the majority scoring. Matthew Costello playing at centre kicked 2 massive penalties for Naas to put them within a try of Athy, and with all the momentum as the second half stayed ticking away.
Both sides were locked in a stalemate for a while as neither team could break each other’s line to score. The opportunity finally fell to the Naas substitute Oisin Brian, quick hands let him crash over the whitewash to put Naas ahead for the first time in the match at 18-15.
Despite Naas having all the momentum in the second half Athy never gave up and stayed playing with resilience and determined to get a winning score.
Their score came in the dying moments of the game, brilliant defence from the Athy pack led to the fly half Ruaidhrí Lawlor bursting through a gap in the Naas line before kicking the ball towards the corner. Despite the Naas winger getting their first Lawlor did brilliantly to strip the ball of him to set up an attacking scrum for Athy in a great position.
After a couple of phases with small gains, it would be Athy’s centre Rory Walsh who scored the winning try to put Athy 20-18 ahead despite missing the conversion. Naas didn’t have a chance to reply with a score of their own as after the restart, Athy booted the ball out of play, and they were winners of a tough and brilliant game of rugby ATHY: Scott Dowling, Chris Larn, John Knowles; Dylan Rafferty, Finn Hughes; Joe Cole, Max Mulhall, Eoghan Lawlor; Colm Moran; Ruaidhrí Lawlor; Will Fennin; Rory Walsh, Ronan Kelly; Leo Kelly: Senan Coffey. Replacements: Ross Bannon, Ryan Flatt, Dylan Brennan Kidd, Xander Pereira, David Goggin, Hayden Casey Gray, Jamie Ryan.
NAAS: Joe Dwyer, Harry Dunne, Scott Whelan; Darragh Browen, Rian Scully; Scott Cooke, Jack Dempsey, Josh Ward; Jack Mullins; Phillip Brannigan; Charlie Croke; Zach Kennedy, Matthew Costello; Ben Cowley; Jack Osbourne; Replacements: Rian Cullen, Podge Quinn, Phillip Sammon, Max Rosen, Oisin Brian, Sean McCafferty, Cillian McHugh, Conor Marron.
