Naas 13 – 16 Corinthians

What was to be a scrappy game with more than 20 penalties given away by both sides, started with the first one being given after 5 minutes when Naas were penalised for offside, and the penalty was successfully taken by out half David Clarke. Three minutes later Naas also got a penalty for offside which was narrowly missed by their full back David Aherne, but he made amends 6 mins later and got their first 3 points on the board. At this point Naas were looking dangerous and were camped inside the Corinthian 22. A scrum resulting from a knock on led to a penalty that Corinthians failed to make use of, which in turn led to a turnover with Naas getting back into the Corinthian 22. Naas were awarded another penalty which gave Aherne the opportunity to add another 3 points leaving the score 6 – 3. On the 23rd minute Corinthians gave away a scrum for a crooked throw in, they then followed this up by going offside leading to another penalty. Play ended up in the Corinthian 22 but Naas failed to make use of this when they knocked on the ball and Corinthian full back Darren Claasens kicked to touch to clear the ball from the danger zone. From the next play Clarke kicked to touch which was followed by Naas being penalised for diving in off the feet and Clarke again kicked to touch at the 30 min mark. A break by Nass substitute Michael Barton saw the ball again in the Corinthian 22 for a dangerous 5 minutes and was eventually cleared out of danger by Wayne Williams. The 1st half came to an end with Naas leading 6-3.
In the 2nd half there was a great take by Corinthian lock Seamus Murphy from a Naas throw in, which saw Corinthians get into the Naas half but was to come to nothing after a knock on. Fourteen minutes into the second half came the first try of the day from Sean Gerrity with an unsuccessful conversion by Clarke leaving the score at 6 – 8. Corinthians tacked on another penalty shortly afterwards. The next try scoring opportunity came ten minutes from the end when a Naas throw in didn’t go 5 leading to a scrum which saw the ball being taken by Corinthian captain Pat Cunningham who in turn fed the ball to Roche which eventually went out to Claasens who got over for the try. This went unconverted leaving the score at 6 – 16. Corinthians then seemed to take the foot off the gas which lead to a near miss by Naas with them ending up in touch right at the corner flag. They weren’t to wait too long for their try when John Holmes got a try for them which was duly converted by Aherne leaving the score at 13 – 16. It wasn’t a vintage display from Corinthians as they knew there wasn’t much at stake, but they should regain focus for the AIL semi-final game against Middleton next Saturday in Corinthian park at 2.30.