Carlow travelled to Southknock on Sunday as Div 2A leaders and hoping to retain and extend their lead. However, it was 3rd placed New Ross who had the better of the early exchanges steadily controlling play before a scintillating exhibition of skill involving Gavin Mernagh picking up from the tail of a lineout before David Crowdle cut back inside to register the opening points of the match after 10 minutes.
3 minutes later, Carlow broke away following poor first up missed tackling and scored their opener in the left corner with the additional points being added by their young fullback. Ross were back in front again after 20 minutes when another piece of sublime handling had David Crowdle put brother, Matt, through for a five pointer. Throughout the remainder of the first half, Ross performed well at scrum and breakdown but were a little less efficient when it came to putting the opposition to ground early and Carlow were taking advantage of the errors to make large advances without actually making it count on the scoreboard.
The second half opener as a penalty conversion from the tee by Gavin Mernagh on the 45th minute and 10 minutes later Carlow were successfull with one of their own. The second Carlow try followed swiftly after when the missed tackle count finally cost Ross dearly. The game pulsed from end to end until, with 71 minutes on the clock, Carlow registered their third try and moved 2 scores clear. Ross never gave up and launched attack after attack but were unable to find the breakthrough needed before Carlow secured the bonus point try in injury time to leave the final score 13 29 and a margin not accurately reflecting the closeness of the encounter.
A notable point about this match was the presence of 4 sets of brothers on the Ross team on the day. Contenders for man of the match included Gavin Mernagh, Kevin Browne, James Ryan and Kyle Roche but this week’s award goes to Captain, David Crowdle.
NRRFC squad: James Bryan, Shane Roche, Kevin Browne, Bryan Harte, Kyle Roche, Tim Coughlan, Joe Coughlan, James Ryan, Gavin Mernagh, Kevin Burke, Eanna Burke, David Crowdle (C), Matt Crowdle, Paudie Barden, Barry Walsh, Bob Dempsey, Breen Howlin, Kieran Treacy, Gary Murphy, Dean Prendergast