Valley lower Navan's colours

Navan .....................17

Clogher Valley .......38

In their first home clash of the AIL Div 2B North campaign, Navan were well-held by a talented Clogher Valley side at Balreask Old on Saturday.

Despite periods of heroic line defence, unforced handling errors and a heavy penalty count proved costly for Navan against the visiting Ulster side.

Clogher Valley opened the scoring after seven minutes through Callum Smyton, but Navan gradually fought their way into the contest. Out-half Philip Smyth put Navan on the scoreboard with a 19th-minute penalty.

The visitors responded with a second try through David Stinson but Navan struck back as Shaun O'Reilly rounded off a sustained spell of pressure and touched down. The resulting conversion from Smyth's conversion brought Navan back to within four points of the lead.

A yellow card for scrum-half Kit Waddington just before the interval allowed Clogher Valley to capitalise on their numerical advantage and they crossed on the stroke of half-time which gave them a 17–10 lead at the break.

Clogher Valley continued their momentum early in the second-half and struck for two tries including a penalty try which put them 21 points clear of Navan.

Navan refused to yield and mounted a strong response in the 58th minute. Pressure on the Clogher Valley line resulted in a yellow card for the visitors and a penalty try awarded to Navan.

However, Navan were unable to further exploit the numerical advantage and another yellow card shown to lock Koen Jansen killed off any hopes of a comeback. Clogher Valley wrapped up proceedings with a late converted try through Philip Wilson.

Navan: Shane O’Connor, Fionn Craik, Gary Faulkner, Eoghan Noonan, Koen Jansen, Michael Brady, Ewan Groenewald, Alex Carter, Kit Waddington, Philip Smyth, Shane Walshe, Harry Hester, Ben McEntagart, Greg Edogun, Shaun O’Reilly. Replacements: Jack Smith, Alex McGoey, Callum Breeds, Luke Dolan, Mark Farrell.