Spirited showing brings renewed hope of survival

Brodigan going over near the posts for a fine try which they converted to leave the score at 10-7 to the visitors.

At this stage Boyne were on top and they made it count when number 8 Rory Hennessy managed to shrug off the attempted tackles of several Navan players to score another excellent try left of the posts. Once again Kerbey added the extras to bring the score to 14-10 for the home side.

However, with a minute to go to half-time Boyne suffered a cruel blow when a yellow card was shown to second row Richard Shuttleworth for retaliation and Navan capitalised on their numerical advantage in the moments that remained before the interval when they worked a move between their number 8 and scrum half which saw them score in the right corner.

The visitors now led 15-14, and with Boyne a man down for the first 10 minutes of the second period Navan got over for another try, this time through their wing forward who broke several tackles to score and increase his sides lead to 20-14.

Boyne returned to their full complement and narrowed the lead when Kerbey converted a penalty to bring them within one more kick of Navan’s tally.

There was little between the sides in this humdinger and Boyne’s performance certainly wasn’t indicative of their position at the bottom of the Division 2C table.

However, once again disaster struck when the referee’s attention was drawn to an incident which saw Boyne’s 2nd yellow card held aloft in the direction of the impressive McCleery. This was for another retaliatory offence and once again the original offender went unpunished.

This incident came at a crucial stage of the game and Navan tagged on a further 10 points in the last quarter when their South African centre took advantage of McCleery’s absence to score a try which they converted along with another O’Reilly penalty. That secured a four-try bonus point and consolidated their top-of-the-table position.

Nevertheless, Boyne played some outstanding rugby during this game and their young side were not overawed by the league leaders and stood toe to toe with them well into the game. They were still fighting hard for the bonus point right to the end and in fact finished very strongly, but a knock-on in that last move denied them the chance.

With fellow strugglers Seapoint getting a win, the foot of the league table looks a forlorn place for the Drogheda side, but hope springs eternal and with more performences of this calibre then Boyne can muster some points and maybe haul themselves to safety - or at least a play-off to secure their AIL status for another year. Navan Rainey Sligo Tullamore Bruff Bangor Midleton Kanturk Seapoint Boyne