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 Seniors have had a rest since my last piece but are back in action this weekend, Saturday, 23rd March when they host Sundays Well who are currently in 12th place overall in the league. Their win over Nenagh Ormond, has seen Naas retain their third place overall ranking behind Rainey Old Boys who are currently 10 points clear and who could be crowned champions this weekend. NUIM Barnhall who are 4 points ahead of Naas are away to Boyne this week. So Boyne to take a few points from Barnhall and a win Naas RFC and we be very happy Saturday evening.
Following that its away to Clonakilty next week and finish of at home tieagainst Instonians for the final round lets hope we are still in the hunt for one of the promotion slots then.
Remember the promotion race is First 2 go up and 3rd goes into a playoff.
| Pos | Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | TB | LB | Pts |
| 1 | Rainey OB | 12 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 356 | 133 | 223 | 6 | 0 | 52 |
| 2 | NUIM Barnhall | 12 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 408 | 170 | 238 | 7 | 3 | 46 |
| 3 | Naas | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 343 | 198 | 145 | 3 | 1 | 42 |
| 4 | Armagh | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 263 | 143 | 120 | 3 | 2 | 39 |
| 5 | Nenagh Ormond | 12 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 258 | 163 | 95 | 3 | 3 | 38 |
| 6 | Boyne | 12 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 247 | 191 | 56 | 3 | 3 | 38 |
| 7 | Navan RFC | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 249 | 236 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 34 |
| 8 | Skerries | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 251 | 205 | 46 | 2 | 3 | 33 |
| 9 | Instonians | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 202 | 289 | -87 | 1 | 0 | 25 |
| 10 | Sligo | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 171 | 247 | -76 | 2 | 1 | 21 |
| 11 | Suttonians | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 218 | 290 | -72 | 2 | 2 | 20 |
| 12 | Sundays Well | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 202 | 291 | -89 | 1 | 4 | 19 |
| 13 | Clonakilty | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 179 | 295 | -116 | 1 | 4 | 17 |
| 14 | Thomond | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 185 | 244 | -59 | 0 | 5 | 15 |
| 15 | Ards | 12 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 169 | 313 | -144 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| 16 | Connemara | 12 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 127 | 420 | -293 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Meanwhile Naas U21s Retain the Leinster JP Fanagan Pennant (Phase 2, Section A) League Title and Conal Owens Cup
10th March 2013, Forenaughts,
Naas Under 21s hosted Dublin University on Sunday 10th March for the final round of the JP Fanagan Pennant (Phase 2) - Section A game at Forenaughts. Having won six of their previous seven league games Naas were in pole position on 29 points, 5 points clear of their nearest rivals Old Belvedere but needed at least a further point to guarantee overall league victory and to retain the prized Conal Owens Cup for consecutive seasons. Conditions whilst dry were extremely cold with a cross field breeze throughout the game which made for challenging kicking.
Final score Naas 21 – Dublin University 5 (HT 14-0) this important win for the Naas U21s sees them retain the Leinster JP Fanagan Pennant (Phase 2, Section A) League title and Conal Owens Cup for two successive seasons. Naas RFC are extremely proud of the achievement of their U21s and would like to congratulate team captain, Cillian Dempsey and all of the players and management team including Shane Roe, Billy Halliden, Joe Campbell, Fran Mahon, Matt Kelly, Mick Dempsey and Mick Roe on their outstanding success. Special thanks also to Grace's of Naas for their team sponsorship throughout the season.
Youth Round up: 19’s 14’s 13’s and Girls 18’s & 15’s
U19’s
The available Squad members began training on 3rd July 12 with Niall Carson, his team of coaches and the Senior Squad.
This went very well and resulted in a very fit squad starting games in September. The squad is a very young group with the majority of the squad U18 and available next year.
The Area games and friendlies through September went very well with wins two of the three games played. The Leinster league started in early Oct and saw the squad narrowly missing out on the premier play offs, which lead to the all Ireland series. In phase two of the league we have won all our games and are presently awaiting to play the semi final when the Cup is sorted.
In the meantime the squad has won through to the qtr final of the Darcy U19 Leinster Cup and play a much fancied Gorey outfit on the 23rd Mar in Gorey.
In addition to club commitments the CBS senior cup team made up of Naas U19, U17 and one DSLP players won the McMullen Schools Cup and are due to play the League Final.
Team Captain Mark Rush represented Leinster at U19. Luke McCormack, Stephen Lackey and David McGrath are part of the North midlands development squad. In addition a former squad member and still under age, Adam Byrne now in UCD, was capped for Leinster Senior Team in the Rabo Direct against Connaught.
U14
Naas U14 kicked off their season with 52 registered players attending training Monday's and Wednesday's. This enthusiastic group of players discovered early in the season that a big step up in commitment and skills was required at U14's. The boys rose to the challenge and everyone of them has improved their rugby this season. This season the U14 coaches had two First teams one in the club competitions and one in school/youth competitions. Both squads did very well in their respective competitions. As we end the season the U14 club squad has reached the north midlands semi final and the quarter final of the league and are still in the Leinster plate competition. The school/youth side also reached the quarter final if the league and are still in the Leinster plate competition. Well done to all involved in U14 rugby this season. Thank you to the boys and their parents for all their efforts this season. A big thank you to all my fellow coaching team Mick, Tim, John, Andrew, and Ger for volunteering their time and commitment this season.
U13
Following a busy pre-Christmas schedule and the completion of the Qualification Leagues, the U13's are fast approaching the business end of the 2012/13 Season.
Next Saturday (March 23rd) sees the B Squad kick off their Plate Campaign with a tough assignment away to Kilkenny RFC. Kick off at 11:30.
Meanwhile, the A team having secured away victories over Enniscorthy and Gorey has progressed through to the Quarter Finals of the McGowan Cup drawing the winners of Wexford V Navan. The Quarter Final fixture is scheduled for March 6th at a venue to be confirmed.
Separately, the A Squad has also qualified from a very competitive Premier League and is now through to the Semi Finals where they will meet a very accomplished Portlaoise side after Easter. The Team had travelled down to the final fixture away to Kilkenny knowing that qualification was dependent on beating an outfit which had been very competitive throughout the League and had made life very difficult during the home tie at Naas. All the bits and pieces finally slotted into place and the team secured an extremely satisfying 50 point victory.
Meanwhile, Neil McGarry and his team are now on the home stretch in terms of the final preparations for the annual U13's Tour to St Davids in Wales. Preparations and fund raising for the tour started last September and have been ongoing ever since. Judging by the itinerary, the tour promises to live up to everyones expectations and with just a week to go, the sense of anticipation amongst the players, parents and coaching team is enormous.
Ironically, although the end of the season is now in sight, the U13 squad are hopefully facing into a very exciting period in coming weeks both on and off the field.
Naas Girls Rugby
Congratulations to the Irish Women’s Team and their Grand Slam, they are an inspiration to all the young girls who have just taken up rugby in the past few years.
This time 2 years ago Naas girls rugby consisted of 6 girls training once a week, and playing 5 matches in the whole season. Now we have 42 girls, with 23 in our U18’s squad and 18 on our U15’s squad. Many of the girls are very new to rugby, and it is probably their second or third sport, so we rarely get all the girls on the pitch at the same time.
The U18's are in a league, and have played 4 and won 2. With 3 league games left we could finish in the top half of the table, which would be a great result for our very young squad - most of our team have another 2 years at U18. The season will finish with a one day round robin competition in Wicklow on the 27th April, where we have high hopes of competing well.
The U15’s team has really developed well over the season - we started with 6 players, but a marketing effort by Emily Mckeown from the U18 team has led to a significant increase in numbers playing the game. The girls played one blitz in Portarlington, where they remained undefeated, and they came third in the full Leinster blitz behind Wicklow and Mullingar.
There is now a really good core of excellent athletes playing in both teams, and the aim is to build up our numbers so that we can play more regularly and compete with the more established clubs. Given the success of the Irish Women's team, the future looks good for girl’s rugby, and we intend to capitalise on this with the formation of an adult women's team as well.
Minis U12
The U12’s (all 78 of them) are going to have a busy few weeks with a number of end of season blitzes starting in DLSP this weekend. We are also moving to 13 aside in preparation for the big move to youth and 15 aside next year. Should be fun!
Till Next time Happy Rugby and keep following us on twitter @naasrfc for all the match and league updates hopefully we will be still in contention.
