Men's 1sts v Naas- Match Report & Photo Gallery

After a rain-soaked week and a tough night in Paris, the AIL took centre stage again and Stradbrook resumed its rightful place as home to Blackrock College. This time hosting a crunch match between Blackrock and Naas who were one place ahead of them on the ladder.

Rock lost their skipper Whelan to an injury last week but were able to welcome back their Leinster contingent for this tussle.

They flew out of the blocks, Mangan's grubber kick caused havoc in the Naas backfield and Colclough was able to dot down before his brother (yours truly) even had time to start the scoreboard clock. Their dominance continued, the forwards were dominating collisions and the line-out was functioning. A 50-22 from Colclough resulted in a camped spell in the visitors 22 and when the referee sent a Naas man to the bin, stand-in skipper Burke, pointed to the posts for Squires to extend the lead to 8.

Akin to Paris on Thursday night, both sides were happy to test the aerial abilities of the back three. Fortunately for Rock they had a Meath GAA man on the wing and he was about to give Stradbrook an Airshow that wouldn't be out of place in Bray Harbour on the August Bank Holiday. Waters chased every Coffey bomb with gusto and more often than not, returned with the ball. 

Naas are a good side and have a knack of scoring quick fire tries. They did just this, Rock's lead was firstly cut and then erased when their two tries sandwiched another Squires penalty. Despite the early dominance, Rock found themselves trailing by one, 12-11 at half-time. 

The second half was worth the entrance fee. It began completely the opposite to the first. Naas took their turn to get an early 50-22 and then capitalised to extend the lead to 19-11. Rock answered straight back after strong forward work from Mullen, Moore and Forde. Fortune the benefactor 19-16.

Naas then came again, claiming their bonus point try, to make it a two-score game. The home crowd knew Rock needed to summon the trademark Stradbrook comeback of prior year to rescue this one. They began from the kick off, Air Harry took flight once more to regather and within moments Rock were attacking the scoreboard end. Every player on the team raised their game and when Galvin found the whitewash the home crowd started to believe. 26-23. 

There was 8 minutes on the clock and Rock owned the ball for the first 6 of these. They managed to get back to the try line and showed great patience, despite the numerous indiscretions by the visitors. Finally, after several 5-metre tap and go's, it was time for Air Harry to depart on his final voyage. Destination try-line and the man of the match bagged the much-needed bonus point win for the hosts lifting them out of the relegation playoffs. In true yester-year fashion, there was still time for a late scare, but excellent rush defence by Squires and Mangan forced a fumble and Moore was able to dive on the loose ball.

A well-timed two-week gap for the Men's seniors now and an opportunity for the supporters to rest their tickers before we do it all again in Armagh at the end of the month.

'Till then.

FT: Blackrock College RFC 30 - 26 Naas RFC

Photography gallery below, credit to Lisa Broughan.