Ballymoney II 37 v Enniskillen II 3
Enniskillen Seconds made the long journey to Ballymoney last Saturday and despite putting in a lot of effort returned home pointless having been defeated by a very accomplished home team.
‘Skins had early pressure but could’nt make it count and the hosts opened the scoring and followed it up shortly after with an unconverted try from their talented fullback. ‘Skins fought hard to deal with the Ballymoney offloading game but conceded a further converted try on the halfhour mark, before Emmet McFadden converted a penalty on the stroke of halftime to give the Skins some hope.
For the first twenty minutes of the second half neither side scored and this was ‘Skins best period of play. Their scrum stood up well and they had the better of the lineout where John Arnold, Kyle Shaw and Richard Grey performed well. ‘Skins had several surges by Gavin Parke off the base of the srum but the breakthrough score never came. Finally, Ballymoney worked another try from theior fullback and ended up comfortable winners.
A tough match was decided by the home side’s better work at the breakdown and well-structured offloading game.
A home match this Saturday represents a good chance to get points and some confidence to this team which has the ability to be more competitive.
Enniskillen U19s 22 v Omagh U19s 5
Enniskillen U19s season got off to a winning start on Friday night with a local derby against league rivals Omagh rsulting in a convincing win for the young ‘Skins. It was a great win from the side especially as the boys are just getting to know each other with several new players coming in to the team and it was very much an untried side.
Right from the first scrum ‘Skins showed their superiority with good controlled ball being supplied to stand-in scrum half Patrick McCleary. New clubmen, Michael Trimble and Jonathan Foster, were very powerful in the front row and dominated their opposite numbers in both the set piece and in the loose.
The line out was secure with ‘Skins’ ryan Stanford winning three of Omagh’s first five throws, and he, James Fawcett and Dale Johnston all made a successful jump from U17 to U19 rugby with no problems. From this platform the coaches were a little disappointed that more decisive running was not more forthcoming. But with only a couple of training sessions under their belts it’s hoped that this is something that will come with time on the training paddock.
