North Midlands Cup Final

North Midlands Cup Final Clondalkin 17 Naas 26 Jonny Stapleton A hat trick from Irish winger Adam Byrne ensured Good Friday was not so great for Clondalkin under 19s, as the Gordon Park side suffered final heart break for the second time this season. Just weeks after suffering cruel defeat in the Division 1 Leinster League, Clon lost out in a tight and tense North Midlands decider. The Division 1 side were massive underdogs going in against the Premier Division finalists, but displayed their quality and but for three well taken Byrne tries could have caused a major upset and collected the silverware a brilliant campaign deserved. Clon made the brighter start and were dominating the forward battle. As a result of the pack power display the hosts took the lead five minutes in. A strong scrum gave Karl Jebb, who was sensational throughout, the perfect platform to break, the number 8 bull dozed his way into the opposition half before winning a penalty that the equally impressive Eoghan Murphy slotted to make it 3-0. Clon continued to dominate the set piece and up front and initially repelled all early Naas advances. However, despite marvellous cover tackles from Jebb, Eoghan Brady, Gadraig Kelly and Killian O’Flaherty and some brut Bobby Smith, Christy Broe and Gareth Black break down work Naas registered two quick fire tries. One of the those touch downs was a brilliant length of the pitch effort from Byrne, whose brother has signed a three contract with Manchester United. Fittingly on Easter weekend Clon refused to die and mounted a comeback, a gallant effort combined with continued Naas indiscipline granted them passage back into the game. Out half Murphy, who kicked beautifully from hand throughout and is maturing into a quality 10, slotted two penalties, one from half way, to make it 9-12 with half time approaching. Just when it looked like the home side would take just a three point deficit into the break Naas full back Byrne struck again to make it 12-19 at the turn. Clon, however were not long in reducing the arrears and getting back to within just two points of their divisional superior rivals. Under 17 star Darren Nolan touched down minutes after another brilliant Murphy restart. Again another strong scrum and Jebb break was the platform for the score. The youngest of three star brothers Karl Jebb broke the gain line before off loading to Nolan, who powered over in the corner. Murphy failed to convert from the touch line but Clon were within two. Clondalkin again continued to do the basics well and with Black, Smith and Broe excelling in the tight. They remained in contention, but anytime the side flirted with going wide the suffered heart break. Twice the home outfit tried to put width on the ball but got turned over and again Naas took advantage scoring twice to put a comfortable 12 point cushion between the sides. The Clon stars of the future didn’t let their heads drop and rallied late on. They set up camp on their opponents line for the remaining 15 minutes and only seven consecutive Naas penalties prevented them from scoring and setting up a tense finale.

Added by TomDuffy April 26, 2011 (8:54AM)

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