Double bid foiled at the final obstacle

PERHAPS it was because they are in the middle of the AlL play-offs or maybe it had something to do with fatigue and the fact that they are coming to the end of a long, hard season, but Navan slumped to their first All-Ireland Junior Cup defeat in two years on Sunday. Whatever the reason, Navan were unable to sparkle in this the All-Ireland Junior Cup final at Dubarry Park and they relinquished their hold on the trophy after a forgettable afternoon. Navan produced a performance that was a mismash of unforced errors and wrong options. The performance was also peppered by some enterprising play, but not enough to rescue them from an unpalatable fate. The conditions were dry and this allowed both sides to move the ball out wide and Tullamore did it to better effect and were rewarded for their sense of adventure. As always, the Navan players gave it everything and even when it was obvious Tullamore were going to win they still battled away unwilling to concede defeat even when all hope was gone. They were seriously hampered by the dismissal of Bernard Smyth just five minutes into the second-half for what was termed by the referee, Dudley Phillips, as the 'use of the head.' The Navan number eight gave his usual full-on performance and his absence from the pack left it vulnerable to Tullamore"s plundering forwards. Smyth and Tullamore"s Colin Finnerty clashed at a ruck. The Tullamore player went down holding his face and the touchjudge waved his flag and called the attention of the referee. After they had consulted the red card was shown to Smyth who walked off, clearly upset with the decision and with blood streaming from a gash in his head. It looked an extremely harsh decision to give Smyth his marching orders especially as the Tullamore player looked none the worst for wear and continued on to play a significant part in his team"s victory. Navan knew that they were facing a real challenge when they went in at the break trailing 5-16 after facing into a stiff breeze. And it could have been worse for them after enduring probably their most forgettable 40 minutes of rugby all season. It started off so promisingly for the Balreask Old outfit when Alan Hickey showed plenty of pace and not a little panache to weave a path through the Tullamore defence and get a touchdown with just 10 minutes gone. Karl Manning missed the conversion. A few minutes later the Meath side were almost in again when Manning went on one of his mazy runs and just inside the Tullamore '22" he off-loaded to Thomas Clarke who knocked on with the line in sight. Then it steadily began to unravel for Navan as Tullamore out-half Gearoid O"Grady pulled the strings behind the scrum providing his team with a solid platform. O"Grady drilled over from a penalty in the 28th minute after Navan were penalised for handling on the ground. He also missed a number of other penalty goal chances from kickable positions as Navan started to feel the heat. It got worse for Navan when Manning was sent to the sin-bin after an incident at midfield. During the full-back"s absence Tullamore made hay with their winger Mark Whelan running in for a well-worked try after he had gathered the ball from an O"Grady cross-field punt. O"Grady converted and drilled over a penalty goal shortly afterwards to give Tullamore their commanding, and deserved, interval advantage. Buoyed up by a talk from coach Brad Harris to up the tempo in the opening minutes of the second-half, Navan looked set to make a concerted effort to haul themselves back into contention. Then Smyth saw red and all strategies and plans had to be redrawn. Both sides huffed and puffed to try and find an opening. Navan"s Clarke had to execute a fine tackle to deny Whelan getting in for another try as Tullamore displayed a willingness to spray the ball around. O"Grady eventually unlocked the Navan defence with yet another Ronan O"Gara-like cross-field kick. Philip Gardiner claimed possession and ran in past an over-stretched defence to get a touchdown Towards the end Navan were justifiably rewarded for a spell of sustained pressure when Shane Dawson rumbled over with Manning just missing from the conversion. There were plenty of errors on both sides in the closing stages, but there was always the sense that Tullamore were playing out time and with a man down Navan were facing a mission impossible. Tullamore - N Geraghty, M Whelan, I Scully, A Deverell, C Hughes, G O"Grady, R Hughes, R Glennon, C Glennon, A Bracken, C Finnerty, B Geraghty, D Milne, A Melville, C Feighery. Subs - S McQuid for N Geraghty, P Gardiner for Whelan, M Harte for McQuid, D Farrell for B Geraghty, D Lowry for Bracken, C Sullivan for C Glennon, N Ravenhill for Milne. Navan - K Manning, T Geraghty, S Donnelly, S Iro, S Hogan, A Hickey, K Mattson; E Dunne, C Brady, D King, S Byrne, J Duffy, P Feeney, T Clarke, B Smyth. Subs - J Baker for Byrne, P Regan for Brady, M McAuley for Geraghty, S Dawson for Clarke, C Joyce for King, A O"Keeffe for Manning, O Hanratty for Mattson. Referee - Dudley Phillips.