Dundalk  U18 boys welcomed Navan to Mill Road on Sunday for their third northeast fixture. This promised to be a close affair with Navan bringing in Harry Waters into their squad from Ratoath. And the out half didn’t waste any time in getting involved with strong dominant tackles and contesting well at ruck time.

Dundalk opened the scoring after 6 minutes with Kai Mahne getting onto the end of a pass from Ronan Foley down the short side.

Navan kept the pressure on at ruck time with Alex Carter making a nuisance of himself, and forcing Dundalk to concede penalty after penalty.

When Dundalk’s forwards did have the ball in hand, they looked pedestrian at times, possibly due to early nerves, and coughing up possession a number of times, letting Navan into the game.

Harry Valentine, at 15, got Dundalk out of trouble a number of times. Playing against a strong wind, he was wily enough to use his footwork to get Dundalk out of trouble a number of times.

Despite strong running from Dundalk captain, Robin Hamill, and his front row colleagues Joshua McParland and Joe Liscoe, Navan took the advantage with a well worked play through the backline, scoring in the righthand corner. A few minutes later they scored a gain, this time catching Dundalk on the blindside. With both tries converted Navan led 14-5 at the break.

The half-time break was just what Dundalk needed and after regrouping looked more assured in coming out in the second half. Larry Brennan came on at fullback for Harry Valentine and was quick into the action, clearing his lines with a 40 yard kick and a good chase, pinning Navan back in their own half. The Cúchulainn Gaels man, in for his first game of the season, was strong in defence too, with a dominant tackle denying what looked like a certain score for Navan.

Dundalk started to build momentum through the forwards, orchestrated by Jordan Nieuwenhuys at nine. And it was the South African who scored after sustained pressure by the Dundalk forwards, he was able to snipe around the side of a ruck and bring the score back to 14-12 after the conversion. With the wind at their backs, Dundalk pressed on. Despite the attritional battle between the two sides, Ronan Foley at ten chipped over Navan’s blitz defence, with Mark Donohue collecting and giving a perfectly timed pass to his midfield partner, Eliot Usoh who galloped in from 30 yards. With Foley kicking the conversion, it was now 19-14 to the home side.

But there was no let up, with Navan attacking with renewed vigour, saved by good tackling and jackalling by Mark Donohue and Eliot Usoh. Dundalk’s final foray into the Navan half yielded another score, and enough to give Dundalk a bit of breathing space with 13 minutes to go.

From a tap penalty from Ronan Foley, Dundalk’s forwards cleared the ruck and Mike Daly was able to stretch to score. The conversion made it 24-14. 

From there, Navan continued to test the Dundalk defence which remained resolute, and poor Thomas Smith was again denied glory after a pass to him was judged to have gone forward.