Naas secure bonus point win to surge into third place and one point from promotion places

Naas           30

Dolphin     8

Ulster Bank AIL Division 1B round 12

Naas moved up to third place in Division 1B and to within one point of second placed UL Bohemians after they secured a bonus point win in horrible conditions at Forenaughts yesterday afternoon.

After watching Ireland run in nine tries against Italy in Rome just beforehand, Naas dotted over for five of their own to overturn an early deficit and beat their Cork opponents to continue their fine post-Christmas run. They fell behind early on to a Dolphin penalty, but struck back with a try from Johne Murphy, which was then converted by scrumhalf Peter Osborne.

Dolphin managed to get over the tryline themselves in the 22nd minute, but Naas upped their game and turned the screw to completely dominate from that point onwards. Michael Skelton's 36th minute try put them back into the lead going into the break, but Naas wouldn't score again until the hour mark when Osborne knocked over another penalty.

Dolphin's challenge completely fell apart in the final five minutes as Naas turned on the style, with Fionn Carr, Will O'Brien and Osborne all crashing over for late tries to secure the bonus point win.

The Kildare side travel to UCC for their next game of the season on Saturday February 18.