Roots & All is a project where we pick a few teams that don’t normally make the spotlight week in week out and feature them regularly throughout an entire campaign.
Naas firsts continued their Leinster Senior League Shield progress on Saturday (15th September) when they took on Suttonians in round 4 at Forenaughts. Despite a very positive start from Suttonians, it was Naas who asserted their authority after just 15 minutes with an impressive try by outhalf Peter Osborne. Naas continued to apply pressure and managed to secure a further two outstanding tries by the interval, both of which were scored by their talented wing Diarmuid Carr (younger brother of Fionn) and converted by David Aherne. A further three tries for Naas in the second period left Suttonians with too much to do inspite of having responded with two impressive tries of their own.
Naas firsts have now won all of their Leinster Senior League Shield opening games managing a bonus win in them all and will now switch their focus to the Ulster Bank League which starts on Saturday 29th September away the NUIM Barnhall.
So the “Local Derby” is on this weekend in NUMI Barnhall and the fact that they have already played each other this season add a little more spice to the mix.
The secret to this league is to get off to a good start, loose your first couple of matches and you’re in a battle to survive from day 1 with the threat of returning to the junior leagues nipping at your heals.
Naas are playing expansive very entertaining brand of rugby at the moment guided by the ex Clontarf boys as player coaches and a group of young talented players returning back from colleges and other clubs along with the existing boys who fought back from a loosing streak early in last years campaign to finish in a comfortable mid table position.
After the positive start to the season there’s a bit of optimism around the club but we been around long enough to know the AIL or Ulster Bank League is a different story but we can still hope can we? As I writing this I just seen a tweet from KnockOn.ie saying that we are 1 of 5 unbeaten teams to watch – someone been keeping an eye on the provincial leagues. The first home game of AIL sees Naas take on Connamera on 6th October
Update on the future of our club. Our U12’s and U11’s were invited to take part in the augural Eric O'Connor Festival of rugby in Blackrock Rugby Club. Fair play to Blackrock they organized a great event. Our boys really enjoyed the rugby with the 2 U12 squads winning 5 out of their 6 matches and the 4 U11 squads presented with the Eric O'Connor Shield what a great honor for our club. Our season kicks of for real this weekend with the start of the North Midlands and Metro fixtures so plenty of rugby for our boys.
In other news around the club is that we got a nice little message from the President of the IRFU Bill Glynn wishing us well for our 90th year celebrations.
Thursday, 27th September the clubhouse will host a pre-season introduction and presentation of “Team Gear” to the Senior Squad. Friday 28th September, a Golf fundraiser at Palmerstown Golf Club. The Naas RFC Business lunch on 26th October at 2pm Killashee House Hotel and our keynote speaker this year is the legend that is Mick Galwey.
At long last (after a couple of cancelations) I’ve got myself onto the next stage of the youth coaching course (foundation course) with the plan to take level 1&2 over the next couple of years. I’m really looking forward to this course let hope it lives up to my expectation or we could be getting a good old fashion rate here next time.
So we have a busy couple of weeks coming up in Fournaughts lets hope we get a few AIL wins under our belts.
Till next time get out there and support your club Happy Rugby keep up to date with our results by following us on twitter @naasrfc or @michaelcahill67
