Following a weather enforced postponement the previous week, Navan RFC Senior Men’s team made a resounding start to their 2025 campaign with a dominant 29-5 victory over Buccaneers in round 11 of the Energia All-Ireland League Division 2A.

After two back to back wins before the Christmas/New Year break which included a win away to Buccaneers in Athlone.

Navan were looking to continue their run of wins and started off with intent, putting the visitors on the defensive as Navan pushed into the Buccaneers half of the field.

The early pressure paid dividends for Navan with hooker Jayden Henderson with an unconverted try after four minutes with a catch and drive off lineout in right corner to give Navan the lead.

On fifteen minutes a Second Try for Navan, second row Liam McAree bursts over the line by the posts finishing off a move that started after a lineout on the left side which Navan quickly moved out wide, Converted by Tom Gavigan.

Two minutes later, a third Try for Navan, back rower Ben McEntagart finishes off a sweeping move to run it in and go over on the left hand side. Converted by Tom Gavigan

Navan pressed forward in search of a bonus point sealing fourth try, however errors cost procession and Buccaneers resolute defence stood firm.

In fact the visitors started to keep the ball in hand and built procession phases by phase and in their proper first foray into Navan’s half of the field they came away with an unconverted try from their inside centre Daniel Hawkshaw reducing Navan's lead.

Navan soon responded coming up to the half-hour mark with a successful penalty kick by Tom Gavigan. To leave the score at halftime, Navan 22 Buccaneers 5.

Navan resumed the second half looking to control the game and push for then fourth try, however as in the later period of the first half a mixture of enforced errors and resolute defence from Buccaneers turned the majority of the half into a midfield stalemate.

The longer the game went on the more confident Buccaneers became and looked to add a second score to chase down Navan's lead.

Into the last ten minutes of the game, Buccaneers had a concerted press into the Navan 22 metre line area looking for that second try.

But on 72 mins, substitute wing for Navan Mark Cohen took a well times intercept and set off up the field drawing in backtracking Buccaneers defenders to just short of the Navan 10 meter line then giving a well times pass to full-back Rory Gordon who took a good running line to beat the remaining defenders to score Navan's fourth try and secure the bonus point with Gavigan adding the conversation to make the score 29-5 to Navan at the games conclusion.

The win securing maximum points for Navan coupled with results elsewhere meant that Navan leapfrogged Old Crescent finishing the day moving up one position to seventh in the table, four points behind their next opponent Banbridge who the take on this coming Saturday away in Rifle Park, Banbridge with a 2:30pm Kick-off.

Player of the Match “Sponsored by The Central”: Liam Carroll

Navan Men's 1st XV Squad "Sponsored by Hannon Travel": Rory Gordon; Cormac Horan, Mathijs de Wit, Evan Dixon (capt), Harry Devlin; Tom Gavigan, Mark Farrell; Liam Carroll, Jayden Henderson, Leigh Jackson, Jordan Finney, Liam McAree, Conor Hand, Ben McEntagart, Tom Ciot.

Replacements: Gary Faulkner, James Wyse, Michael Brady, Jack Dixon, Mark Coen.