Long hard look at performances brings improvement

AIL DIV 2 REACTION Watters and Dixon reflect on Navan's spirted display

Saturday's AIL Div 2A clash at Balreask Old might, in one respect, be regarded as a nondescript, regular league game and, in some ways it was just that. Yet young Navan full-back Harry Watters is unlikely ever to forget the occasion - and for a good reason. It was his debut in the AIL.

He didn't look in the least out of place either in the bruising, physically-demanding environment. In fact he had a fine outing, hardly surprising since he has represented Ireland at u-18 level, gaining a cap last year against Italy in Verona.

"It was a great experience, I learned so much from playing at international level," he said on Saturday as he stood outside the Navan dressing room following the defeat to Instonians.

From Ratoath, where he served his apprenticeship in under-age rugby, Watters moved to Navan at the start of this season and played for "the A team" before graduating to the first-team on Saturday, just two days after his 18th birthday.

He had an eventful first outing too, making a number of surging runs. He got away some searching kicks that put the Ulster side on the backfoot, his display underlining how a player can impose himself on a contest, write his own script, rather than wait for something to happen.

Late in the first half, as Instonians pressed hard for a breakthrough close to the Navan tryline, the young debutant dramatically got in a certain try-saving tackle, bundling an Instonians player over the sideline just metres from the try zone.

Less poetically Watters also spent a time in the sinbin on Saturday, after a tackle that was deemed too high. It didn't knock him off course. Instead he he came back on and continued as he left off. "I was a bit over-eager with that tackle," he added.

A Leaving Cert student in Ratoath College, Watters says he learned a lot from playing with a group of Navan players who sought to guide him through the rigours of the afternoon. "The other players were a great help to me, I really appreciated it. Rugby is a team game. "

Watters certainly has the physical presence, pace and ball-handling skills required to make an impact in the sport - especially if he continues to work hard on honing his undoubted talent.

Another talented player who has been with Navan a little longer than Watters, although not that much longer, is Kyle Dixon. He too had a fine outing on Saturday, getting in some big hits and making the hard yards against a firmly-constructed Instonians defence.

He has formed a midfield partnership along with his brother Evan and they combined effectively again on Saturday in helping to prevent Instonians make inroads through the middle of the Navan battlements. They also made some hard yards with surging runs.

At one stage of the second-half, Navan, who had led 7-5 at the break, were 7-19 down and under severe pressure. They could easily have folded. Accepted cruel fate. They didn't. They showed the kind of spirit that Kyle Dixon believes augurs well for the team's chances of avoiding the play-offs.

"In some of our previous outings we might have caved in. In this game we stuck with it and got a try at the end and got a bonus point out of it, so we are absolutely delighted with that, it's something to build on."

While Navan played plenty of constructive, measured rugby some unforced errors also cost them and Dixon will be hoping they can learn from all that and improve further.

He spoke about how the team had talked during the week about the direction they were going. How they could improve. What needed to be done. All that too, he felt, was built into Saturday's encouraging display.

"We took the Tuesday off, had a chat among the players and management and said we'd change our attitude surrounding a few things," he explained. "In recent games if a team got within our 22 they nearly always came out with points, we sought to address that while we also thought about and worked on becoming more clinical ourselves when we got attacking opportunities.

"The important thing is if we get our stuff right, our game in order, we can go into games a bit more confident. Today we fixed a few things we felt we had to and going forward that's what we'll have to continue to do."

Kyle Dixon grew up playing for Navan before spending time with Dublin University and Lansdowne. When his father, Damien, became Navan RFC president Kyle felt it was a good time to go back to his old stomping ground.

Days like Saturday when the team showed considerable character and spirit to get something from a contest that was slipping away from them, certainly constitued one of the better days since his return.