Naas provided an upbeat conclusion to a season that had previously seen them winning the Leinster Senior League, but failing to qualify for the AIB All-Ireland League Division Four, eliminated at the provincial winners knock-out stage.
Yesterday at the superbly appointed grounds of Enniscorthy RFC, Naas completed a Leinster double when they deservedly prevailed in a gritty and hard fought Smithwick's Provincial Towns' Cup Final before a vocal and appreciative 2,000 crowd.
The final scoreline is a little misleading, offering scant justice to a Kilkenny team who were closer to a victory than the result indicates. The losers dominated the opening 20 minutes of the match, rooted inside the Naas 22, but a lack of finesse behind the scrum thwarted several promising passages of play.
Kilkenny appeared to know only one avenue to the try line, attempting to batter a path through the Naas pack. Even when they moved the ball away from the forward tussle, it usually went no further than out-half Barry Daly. This brand of one-dimensional rugby was never likely to threaten Naas: once the Kildare side managed to shore up any holes up front, stopping Kilkenny was relatively easy. Despite their ineffective use of possession, second rows Lee Salmon and David Dunne and former Shannon hooker Ivor O'Brien never shirked their responsibilities. O'Brien and Salmon combined excellently out of touch, while Dunne proved a hugely effective ball carrier.
Kilkenny overdid the ploy of using flanker Padraig Hehir outside out-half Daly to punch a hole in the Naas defence: the telegraphed gambit was easily contained.
Naas began sluggishly, completely outplayed and contributing to their own problems with some frantic and sloppy execution in possession. Gradually the lethargy lifted and they used ball with a greater potency. Twice in the first half, they were denied tries by referee Eugene Carberry.
On the first occasion a forward pass was the correct call, but the second time, Carberry was poorly placed to make any judgement and this time did so in error, wrongly adjudging hooker Vinny Gleeson's scoring pass to captain Mark Fitzgerald forward.
They did manage to cross the Kilkenny line on 34 minutes, Gleeson credited with the try. Frank Chanders took a line-out five metres from the Kilkenny line, the excellent Ray Lawlor set up the ruck and Gleeson was on hand to muscle his way over.
Naas changed over to face a strong breeze in the second half, but instead of finding themselves under pressure it obviously blew away cobwebs. Gleeson, Chanders, David Nevin, Lawlor and Ross Murphy, a brother of Leicester full back Geordan, competed with greater purpose.
Creating a platform up front allowed the three-quarter line to stretch Kilkenny with Offaly hurler Michael Duignan and Fitzgerald particularly sharp. Naas's new comfort was facilitated by Kilkenny's reluctance to use the elements: on the rare occasions they kicked long on the wind, they enjoyed huge gains territorially.
Twice in the opening five minutes Kilkenny elected to kick penalties in the Naas 22 into touch. When Carberry awarded a third, Daly should have given his side the lead, but pushed the ball wide from 15 metres. He atoned on 17 minutes after Naas had strayed offside following Vinnie O'Shea's clever chip through, this time from 18 metres.
Kilkenny spurned a great try-scoring chance when Donagh Cronin knocked on John O'Neill's intelligent cross-field punt from a quickly taken penalty. Gleeson's try six minutes before the break, which Mark Waldron failed to improve upon, was a fitting reward for a period of sustained pressure.
They took a huge stride towards claiming the trophy with a second try, nine minutes after the restart when another Chanders line-out take culminated with prop Karl Alexander being driven over. Waldron was again off target with the conversion.
To their credit, Kilkenny tried to lift the tempo, but poor presentation of possession led to turnovers and general handling errors. Daly had an opportunity to reduce the arrears on 68 minutes, but failed from 24 metres, it was to be Kilkenny's last hurrah.
Waldron's penalty eight minutes from time ensured that Naas would be celebrating a second triumph, maybe not in the manner in which they would have preferred, but a deserved victory nevertheless.
Scoring sequence: 5 mins: Daly penalty, 30; 34: Gleeson try, 3-5; 49: Alexander try, 3-10; 72: Waldron penalty, 3-13.
Naas: M Waldron; S Pringle, M Duignan, J Keegan, M Fitzgerald (capt); J Sheehan, C Farrell; R Doyle, V Gleeson, K Alexander; D Nevin, F Chanders; R Lawlor, R Murphy, D Hipwell. Replacements: T Ronaldson for Chanders 71 mins; M McNelis for Farrell 74 mins.
Kilkenny: V O'Shea; E Russell, D Cronin, J O'Neill, N McGrath; B Daly, Q Hearne; T McQuinn, I O'Brien, B Desmond; L Salmon, D Dunne; P McDonald, W Mahony (capt), P Hehir. Replacement: R McEvoy for McQuinn 75 mins.
Referee: E Carberry (Leinster).
