Malone opened their AIL 1B account with a home win against Navan at Gibson Park on Saturday afternoon through they will be disappointed not to pick up a try bonus point.

An early penalty from Rory Campbell gave Malone the lead but Navan responded with a try from Sean McEntagart, converted by Liam McLoughlin. However indiscipline from the visitors coughed up another couple of penalties for Campbell before McLoughlin knocked over one in reply to take the score to 9 – 10 at the end of the first quarter.

The flurry of penalties settled down in the second quarter and Malone found the whitewash on the half hour mark with Dave Cave hitting the line for Campbell to convert to give Malone a 16 – 10 lead. the teams then each saw a player yellow carded as an understandably scrappy enough first half came to an end without further score.

The second Half was a much more dominant performance by the home team, scoring two converted tries, a super breakaway try by Aaron Sexton and a rumble over from the pack finished by Claytan Milligan. Campbell converted both to take the score to 30 – 10 though the home side probably had enough possession to have put the game out of sight by that stage.

No try bonus point for the home team and the visitors had the last word with a late try from Evan Dixon, converted by McLoughlin to give a final score of Malone 30 Navan 17.

MALONE: Aaron Sexton; Rory Campbell, Ben McCaughey, Matthew Hamilton, Andy Bryans; John Creighton, Shane Kelly; Tommy O’Hagan, Claytan Milligan, Aidan McSwiggan, James Welling, Adam McNamee, Dan Kerr, Dave Cave (capt), Max Porter. Replacements: Scott Finlay, Ben Halliday, Stewart McKendrick, Conor Spence, David McMaster, Richard Greenwood.

NAVAN: Paddy Fox; Sean McEntagart, Evan Dixon, Harry Hester, Rory Gordon; Colm O’Reilly, Mark Farrell; Liam Carroll, Jack Nelson, Eoin King, Andrew Doyle, Conor Hand, Shane Faulkner, Conor Farrell, Hardus Van Eeden. Replacements: Gary Faulkner, Ciaran Tobin, Ronan Meegan, Liam McLoughlin, Ben McEntagart, Niall Farrelly.

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Images by Cyril Boyd Photography