Tough season starts with trip to Belfast

RUGBY

Once more into the breach. Tomorrow morning the Navan players will make their way to Belfast in what will be the first stage of a journey into the unknown.

The primary task will be to take on - and they'll be hoping defeat - Malone in the opening round of their AIL Div 1B campaign, but the game will have a deeper significance.

It is after all the Navan club's first league game since the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020 - and who knows what the coming months might bring for Navan in particular and club rugby in general.

Another lockdown can be ruled out, surely, but there have been rumours of teams having had their pre-season preparations undermined by players picking up the virus and then been forced to isolate.

It doesn't take much to imagine what the consequences would be if a large number of players were afflicted in this way. So yes the coming months will certainly be a journey into the unknown.

Navan find themselves once more in Div 1B exactly where they were when Covid forced a halt to proceedings.

At the time Navan were bottom of the table and looking destined to make the drop down but the arrival of the health crisis brought everything to a halt.

Instead of going back to Div 2A Navan were been given a reprieve by the powers-that-be.

They have been allowed to stay in the higher division but a glance at their statistics in 1B at the time when it all came to a halt last year underlines the kind of challenge they face to stay at this relatively lofty perch.

When the league was halted in March 2020 Navan had played 14, won one and lost the rest.

They had scored 137 points, but conceded 371 and had just six points in the bag.

The team just above them was Naas, but they had 27 points.

Those cold facts underline, in stark detail, the gulf Ray Moloney's men must bridge if they are to consolidate their place in the division this time around.

It's a tall order indeed.

Not surprrisingly Navan will be odds on to make the drop back to 2A - and yet in that reality can be found a tremendous motivation; a source of genuine hope.

Looked upon as cannon fodder and complete underdogs, Navan can be inspired and driven by the reality that opponents will view them as also-rans, no-hopers.

'We'll show them,' could be the team's mantra this season as they seek to overturn the odds.

After all, minnows have proved to be triumphant before. Davids have brought down Goliaths.

That kind of motivation was alluded to by head coach Moloney when he spoke to the Meath Chronicle at a training session on Tuesday of last week.

How he felt his team can be powered by the desire to prove people wrong.

"Last year there were games when we were a bit off the pace, but there were other games when we were there or thereabouts until the last 20 minutes or so.

"We just didn't have the strength-in-depth in the squad then, but I think the lads are more capable of doing the job in 1B this year, I think they have a better chance of staying up."

To back up this view he feels the players will be mentally fresher than they have been for some time.

The fact the club achieved successive promotions was mentally and physically draining.

It's an interesting point.

Navan have, as the coach pointed out, much the same squad as last year.

They have sought to bolster their numbers by bringing through young players. They have also brought in Jack Nelson a hooker from New Zealand as well as two South Africans, lock/back row player Hardus Van Eeden and out-half/full-back Liam McLoughlin, who as the name suggests has Irish connections.

No matter what way you look at it, it will be a monumental achievement for Navan to stay in Div 1B.

Malone on Saturday are, for example, likely to include professional players from the Ulster Academy - just as they did when the sides last met in the league in Ferbruary 2020 (when Malone won 12-0 at Balreask Old).

It will be the same with other city-based clubs.

Navan it appears, are just that bit far away from the Big Smoke to get a few academy players themselves.

Instead they will have to rely on their own resources; their own ingenuity to survive.

It all points to long, arduous journey on a very rocky road indeed for the Balreask Old boys.