Last gasp Navan try puts Nenagh’s title confirmation on hold

As Nenagh Ormond defended their line in the dying moments against Navan on Saturday, word filtered through that closest title rivals MU Barnhall had fallen to a late home defeat to Banbridge, which meant Nenagh just had to hold out for the win and the title would be there’s.

RUGBY: Energia All Ireland League Division 2A Round 16

Navan 15

Nenagh Ormond 11

Report: Shane Brophy at Balreask Old

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: Ben McEntagart (Navan)

SCORERS – Navan: Tries – Finney, P McEntagart. Conv – Farrell (1). Pen – Farrell (1)

Nenagh Ormond: Try - K O’Flaherty. Pens: McMahon (2).

But there was one final twist as Navan, themselves with an outside chance of still making the end of season promotion playoffs but more realistically in a battle to avoid relegation, threw one last assault at the Nenagh defence, who were down to fourteen men with centre Conor McMahon in the sin-bin. And it was through that avenue in the ninth minute of added time that the Ormond rearguard finally ran short of numbers as Peter McEntagart cut in off his wing to break the line and run in under the posts for a match-winning try.

It set off euphoric scenes in the stand, akin to Navan winning a title themselves, but it was about easing their relegation worries slightly as other results didn’t quite go their way.

And it was having that need to win which made Navan such a dangerous opponent in this game and right from the off the home side brought a physicality and intensity that Nenagh struggled to match in the first quarter especially.

Right from the off they were on it, scrum-half Mark Farrell executing a 50-22 in the first minute, and from the resulting line-out, powerful centre Kyle Dixon made the crucial incision to bring Navan right to the line from where prop Jordan Finney barrelled over for the try which Farrell converted.

Nenagh were sloppy in the early going, conceding a penalty from the restart for tackling in the air, but there were good signs in the scrum where Jack O’Keeffe had early success while captain Willie Coffey was his usual powerful self in the carry.

The visitors were also playing into the teeth of a very strong wind and soon began playing the game more in the opposition half, without ever looking line penetrating with Navan back-row Ben McEntagart a real nuisance throughout in the tackle and the breakdown.

On 33 minutes, Nenagh fell 10-0 down with Mark Farrell slotting a penalty after winning a penalty at the breakdown but crucially before half time, got themselves back in contention. Kevin O’Flaherty was taken out in the air at a lineout, David Gleeson took a quick-tap penalty to inject some pace into proceedings from where Nenagh put in a sustained period of pressure. A Navan knock-on led to a scrum from where Evan Murphy carried from the base and passed to Willie Coffey who was tackled short of the line, and from where Nenagh were patient and Kevin O’Flaherty found the gap to borrow over for an unconverted score.

Trailing 10-5 at the break was a decent outcome with the elements to come and within three minutes of the restart, Conor McMahon had cut the gap to two with a penalty.

Nenagh produced some of their best rugby of the season over the next twenty minutes, but the combination of poor execution and superb Navan defence meant they failed to convert it into points.

There was a sense of them chasing tries when points were needed on the scoreboard and finally on 66 minutes, they opted to go for the posts from their latest penalty at the scrum which McMahon converted for an 11-10 lead.

Nenagh will feel they didn’t get the refereeing decisions at this stage as Navan’s persistent infringing didn’t lead to a yellow card.

After being camped in their own half for almost half an hour, Navan finally managed to get out in the dying minutes, aided by a poor refereeing call where a high tackle on John Healy, brought to the referee’s attention by his touch-judge was over-ruled or misinterpreted, as Navan were allowed to retain the penalty they were awarded and were able to get out from where Conor McMahon was sin-binned for deliberately slowing the play down in the 79th minute.

Despite few breaks in play, nine minutes of injury time were played in which on at least two occasions, Nenagh had forced a turnover to win the game, but play continued with Peter McEntagart’s last gasp try putting Nenagh’s title confirmation on hold.

TEAMS – Navan: Rory Gordon (7); Paddy Fox (6), Sean McEntagart (7), Kyle Dixon (8), Peter McEntagart (7); Evan Dixon (7), Mark Farrell (7); Liam Carroll (6), Jamie Kavanagh (7), Jordan Finney (7); Eoghan Noonan (6), Conor Hand (6); Ben McEntagart (8), Leon Akopian (6), Harry Hester (6).

Reps: Conor Ryan (7) for Hester (44); Jakob Matthews (6) for Akopian (71).

Nenagh Ormond: Josh Rowland (6); David Gleeson (6), Conor McMahon (6), Willie Coffey (8), Conor O’Shaughnessy (6); Ben Pope (6), Nicky Irwin (7); Seán Frawley (6), Dylan Murphy (6), Jack O’Keefe (6); Jake O’Kelly (6), Kevin O’Flaherty (7); John O’Flaherty (6), John Healy (6), Evan Murphy (7).

Reps: Joe Coffey (7) for O’Kelly (18-22 blood, 64); Mikey Doran (7) for Frawley (27); Colm Skehan (7) for O’Keeffe (44); Rob Buckley (6) for D Murphy (64); Derek Corcoran (6) for O’Shaughnessy (73); Dylan Murphy for Healy (80+5 inj).

Referee: Henry Richmond