Naas win for Clondalkin women in Paul Flood Plate final

AT THE end of what has seemed like a very long season the Clondalkin Women J1s arrived at the Paul Flood Plate Final 2023 and successfully won out 19-12 over Naas in the final at the weekend.

It was nothing short of what they deserved.

The girls had come through 64 training sessions, 15 matches, a top 4 place in Division 2, the first game for a club J2 side, and over 30 players that had worn the crest in battle this season.

They had earned their place in this final and deserved to win it, but sport doesn’t do “deserve”.

After a comprehensive result in the semi-finals against Portlaoise Clondalkin were all fully aware that they needed to improve and up their game further if they were to have any hope of beating a talented Naas side.

The teams had already met twice this season, sharing the spoils away from home.

The first 10 minutes was a back-and-forth tussle, each side making little errors in attack and it seemed like both performed best in defence.

The linespeed from both defences, the tackle completion and the contest at the breakdown were all top notch.

But first blood was to be drawn by Clon on 15 minutes.

After a number of line breaks in open play from Erica Keegan and Nikki Smyth, Clondalkin gained a penalty in the Naas 22.

A quick tap and the ball was moved wide right to Shauna Healy who got to within one inch of the line but was stopped.

With an advantage for offside coming, second row Niamh McDonnell picked at the base of the ruck to power over in the right corner.

It was a difficult conversion and while the kick was accurate it just didn’t have the power to get over.

5-0 Clon. From the restart the ball was won and run back on the left, again fast recycled ball allowed Clon to attack the left wing.

Unfortunately there was a slight knock-on and scrum Naas.

Clon were unfortunate to suffer a penalty at the scrum given how dominant they were in this area but they took their medicine and retreated.

However, from the ensuing lineout they gave away a further 3 penalties in a row for offside and not releasing, to allow Naas to make easy territory.

Once in the Clondalkin 22, Naas were very direct and confrontational in the contact zone which allowed them to power over under the posts, the conversion was a straight forward one.

The rest of the half returned to a tug of war for possession and territory.

Naomi Fynes was her usual industrious self, doing the work of 3 people in defence, at the breakdown and with her support play.

With about 5 minutes left in the first half, Clon had a scrum on the right Naas 10m line.

From a very solid scrum platform, Clon attacked the midfield and after quick recycled ball by the backrow and good hands from the backs, Emma Callaghan was released down the left wing by a beautiful skip pass from Parish.

However, she still had a bit of work to do.

She ran an arc to beat the outside defender and her pace allowed her to beat the cover defence to go over the line and run towards the posts to make the conversion a little easier for Parish, who duly attached the 2 points.

The 2nd half started perfectly, if you are a Clondalkin supporter.

After pressure from the restart Clon won a lineout on the right on the Naas 10m line.

Ball was won cleanly moved across the pitch where Emma Callaghan had yet another linebreak.

She was dragged down in the 22 by excellent scramble defence from Naas.

The ball was recycled and moved to the midfield with a big carry from Hannah Ryan.

Another quick recycle and hands got the ball to Parish on the right for another linebreak.

Another quick recycle and a pop pass saw Niamh Mc go over for her 2nd try on the day and Clon’s 3rd.

Parish put the ball over to make it 19-7 Clondalkin.

10 minutes later Erica Keegan went down with a suspected broken foot.

This had the potential to be a huge loss given the work rate by Erica up to that point, however, Aoife Cunningham came on and made The rest of the half was spent completely in the Naas half of the pitch.

Multiple linebreaks by both wingers Emma and Caoimhe Peggs stretched Naas.

Shona pulled the strings as all good 10s do, and directed the team perfectly throughout.

But Naas were up to the challenge and their defence responded excellently to the width that Clon were attempting to play with.

There were a number of last passes that didn’t go to hand, were dropped or just weren’t accurate and it would be easy to put it down to handling errors but they were forced errors by a tenacious Naas side who refused to buckle.

And they received a reward for that in the last couple of minutes.

After resolute defence they broke out of their own half, won a penalty for not rolling away and put it down on the Clon 22.

They then played multiple phases, constantly punching dents in the defence and the Clon line finally buckled and Naas scored the try they deserved.

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