Enniskillen claim home victory to continue their stellar start to the season
Enniskillen continued their impressive and unprecedented start to the season with a bonus point victory over Portadown RFC, a big hitter in Division 1 and a club with which Skins have numerous connections over the years.
From the outset Portadown claimed possession with a scrum after the Enniskillen kick off drifted too far. The visitors looked determined and carried tenaciously at the home side’s defensive line, particularly good yards made from Skins exports Gary Hall and Gareth McCoy. Portadown worked their way well into Enniskillen territory but the early defensive effort was good and an eventual turnover gave Paddy McCleery at scrum half a chance to clear, with a Portadown knock on giving Skins a scrum way back in the opposition half. A nicely weighted kick from Mark O’Shea at centre put Enniskillen further up the field inside Portadown’s 22’, but some lack of execution at the line out gave the visitors a let off for now. Shortly afterwards Portadown infringed around the ruck area and Lendrum duly kicked to the corner to give Skins another close range opportunity. This time the line out functioned well through Buchanan and Skins gained decent yards from the maul before the ball was sent out to the backs for O’Shea to break through a gap and cross the line on the 10 minute mark, unconverted by Lendrum.
A handling error at the restart put Skins on the back foot again and Portadown continued to apply pressure on Enniskillen in their own half. The defence was good from the home side but some over eagerness around the ruck gifted the visitors a penalty in kickable territory which narrowed the gap to 5-3. Skins continued to play a bit too much rugby in their own half and Portadown almost took the lead from a second penalty, only for it to drift wide of the uprights.
Skins began to look more focused in attack now and good carrying from the forwards brought play well into the Portadown half, bolstered by the impressive scrummaging display from the rotating front row of Ferguson, Cathcart and the two Beattys, which effectively made it very difficult for Portadown to retain possession. Portadown again were penalised deep in their own half shortly afterwards when deemed to be illegally contesting a well worked Skins maul off the line out, allowing Lendrum to extend the lead to 8-3.
Skins will rue their reaction afterwards as they allowed the visitors to creep back up inside their half and cross the line for what was, despite being a well worked backs move from Portadown, still a fairly soft score. Enniskillen recomposed themselves and carried well from the restart with good interplay between the forwards and backs eventually placing them within sight of the opposition try line. A knock on defused the attack but the Skins scrum was rampant and a stolen Portadown put in gave Lee at Number Eight a chance to cross the line that was just held short; quick ball from McCleery out the backs, however, found Ashley Finlay who extended the lead to 13-8 to end the half, unconverted by Lendrum.
Portadown attacked well from the restart and a crucial steal from James Ferguson gave Lendrum an opportunity for a huge clearance to relieve the pressure. There was quiet concern and wry smiles in equal measure amongst the supporters as Skins back rower, and former Portadown captain, James Carleton, saw yellow after a tackle that lacked any clear use of the arms. Portadown immediately used their numerical advantage to good effect as they carried aggressively off a line out near the Skins line, with Gary Hall crossing for a try. As a signal of intent from Skins not to be overrun, Harte and O’Shea successfully charged down the conversion to avoid another two points.
The defence was tenacious from Skins in the following phases as they saw off the Portadown onslaught while down in numbers. A key turnover from Buchanan and a penalty awarded to the home side shortly after would seem to indicate they’d weathered the storm as Carleton returned to the field. A seemingly unstoppable driving maul up the pitch from Skins gained phenomenal yards and claimed a penalty to set up another line out in the corner. A loose pass and knock on from the line out let Portadown off the hook but the ensuing scrum was too much for the visitors to cope with, the Portadown loose head going to the sin bin for failing to keep the scrum up. Lendrum missed his penalty attempt but a scrum shortly afterwards just inside the Portadown half went out the backs who displayed exquisite hands at pace for Steve Neill to finish in the corner, unconverted to leave the scoreline 18-13.
A rallying cry from coach Gibson surely demanded that Skins don’t concede yet another reprisal, and the home side didn’t disappoint as Portadown came back to heavily bombard the Enniskillen line, only to be turned over and cleared by Lendrum. The Skins forwards carried well into the Portadown half with Johnston and Carleton making good yards. Then a sweetly hit line from Kaine Holden at pace just inside the opposition 22’ was found totally unmarked as he touched down for the bonus point try, converted by Lendrum to extend the lead 25-13. Portadown played to the very last and were inches away from claiming a try for the losing bonus point but for last ditch defence from James Ferguson and debutant John McClaughry.
It was an excellent spectacle of rugby as well as an improved and composed performance from Enniskillen, coming from a derby victory against Clogher that could have had the Mullaghmeen men getting carried away. Skins now turn their attention to the Junior Cup this weekend as they play away to fellow league side Omagh, another team who have looked sharp in their start to the season.
——————————
Maguire and Millar Take the Field for Ulster U18 Clubs
Enniskillen Under-18 players Conor Maguire and Tyler Millar were both confirmed last week as selected in the Ulster U18’s squad to face Munster in the first game of the interprovincial series. While Ulster lost out narrowly to Munster in a 19-14 defeat, it’s a fantastic achievement for both these players to be involved and they will now look to their next interpro fixture away against Connacht on Saturday.
————————
Enniskillen Girls Rugby Continues to go from Strength to Strength
It was a double success for the Enniskillen Under-18s girls last week as it was confirmed that a phenomenal four girls were announced in the Ulster U18 girls panel leading up to the interpros later this month. Claire Boles, Ellie Ingram, Tammy Millar & Ellie Rix were all named in the 26 strong panel from all over Ulster. In a further accolade Rix, Ingram and Boles all represented the combined provinces Rugby Sevens side at the 2016 UK School Games at the weekend where they finished with a Bronze, with Enniskillen astonishingly comprising almost a quarter of the 13 strong squad picked from all over Ireland.
Enniskillen 2XV 44
Carrickfergus 3XV 0
Saturday saw the start of the 2016-17 season for skins 2nd XV who are out to prove a point this year after achieving a place in the Forster cup final a mere 5 months ago. The 2’s, once again captained by Ricardo Willis for another season, have had a few challenging pre season friendlies to get back into the swing of things which was the basis upon which the starting line up was chosen.
Skins came out of the blocks with sheer determination which the jet lagged Carrick team could not handle, thus leading to skins’ first try within a matter of minutes as Willis powered over the line. The sleepy Carrick side were harshly awoken by this early try but they were still no match for the heavy skins pack that ploughed over Carrick on every scrummaging opportunity, winning turnover ball left, right and centre. By half time skins had seen 3 more tries coming from resilient efforts by Oliver Gamble and two crossings for Chris ‘Thierry’ Henry, with one of these being converted by Scott ‘Ruan’ Burrell.
By the second half skins’ power and outstanding fitness was visible when this season’s big money transfer of Matthew ‘Montage’ Monteith paid off as he ran in comfortably under the posts for skins’ 5th try.
Immediately after, the determined Montage gained yards by powering over 2 Carrick players then offloading the ball to Burrell who sent a humdinger of a long range pass to the finger tips of Henry who ran it in to the corner for his third try of the day.
There was plenty of tactical substitutions within the forwards, keeping scrums, line outs and the rucking contest lively. Not least from the team veteran Ross ‘Donkey’ Duncan who galloped in some destructive lines, leading to Gamble adding his second and final try to the scoreboard as the whistle was blown 10 minutes early.
The Skins side showed plenty of potential as there were a number of players that stepped up admirably and performed well in the absence of some key players. Skins 2’s have started as they mean to go on with this hopefully the start of a promising season.
Skins came out of the blocks with sheer determination which the jet lagged Carrick team could not handle, thus leading to skins’ first try within a matter of minutes as Willis powered over the line. The sleepy Carrick side were harshly awoken by this early try but they were still no match for the heavy skins pack that ploughed over Carrick on every scrummaging opportunity, winning turnover ball left, right and centre. By half time skins had seen 3 more tries coming from resilient efforts by Oliver Gamble and two crossings for Chris ‘Thierry’ Henry, with one of these being converted by Scott ‘Ruan’ Burrell.
By the second half skins’ power and outstanding fitness was visible when this season’s big money transfer of Matthew ‘Montage’ Monteith paid off as he ran in comfortably under the posts for skins’ 5th try.
Immediately after, the determined Montage gained yards by powering over 2 Carrick players then offloading the ball to Burrell who sent a humdinger of a long range pass to the finger tips of Henry who ran it in to the corner for his third try of the day.
There was plenty of tactical substitutions within the forwards, keeping scrums, line outs and the rucking contest lively. Not least from the team veteran Ross ‘Donkey’ Duncan who galloped in some destructive lines, leading to Gamble adding his second and final try to the scoreboard as the whistle was blown 10 minutes early.
The Skins side showed plenty of potential as there were a number of players that stepped up admirably and performed well in the absence of some key players. Skins 2’s have started as they mean to go on with this hopefully the start of a promising season.
