Enniskillen 2nd XV – 31 Instonians 3rd
XV – 20
Enniskillen seconds played their third league game of the season at home to Instonians last Saturday, and
having lost their first two games needed a good performance.
It was the visitors however who took the initiative and driven by some storming play by the evergreen Brian
Wallace the visitors scored two quick tries. ‘Skins were simply not putting in the tackles and were kicking
away possession too cheaply.
A further Inst penalty gave them a 15 – 0 lead before skipper David Taylor began an inspired comeback with
a try after a storming run.
In the second half ‘Skins played much better rugby with the forwards driving at the Instonians defence and
only at the right time releasing the backs. Scrum-half Dale McMaster kept ‘Skins on the front foot ably
supported by Taylor, Parke, Auterson and Leitch.
Further tries followed from Parke and Donaldson, and in the end Skins were worthy winners despite losing
Richard Willis to injury
Enniskillen 3rd XV were beaten by Cavan 2nd
XV on Saturday, however the defeat was not all
Cavan’s making and had a lot to do with some atrocious refereeing, with both teams questioning
whether they were even playing rugby union or some other unknown game.
Cavan started the game the brighter showing that they had a dangerous backline, however the
Enniskillen front five comprising Adi Breen, Steven Frazer, Noel McCusker (all in the front row),
Jim Kathro and Dave Tyson (in the second row) dominated the scrum, driving the much larger
Cavan pack back on every scrum. In addition ‘Skins showed some excellent defence, which held
firm, forcing the hosts to knock-on and turn the ball over, keeping the score 0 – 0 at half time.
Enniskillen started to dominate at the start of the second half however a poor refereeing decision
awarded Cavan a penalty in front of the posts which they duly converted to lead 3 – ). This did not
get ‘Skins down and straight away they went to the other end of the field and scored a well worked
try. Keith Hurst made the break offloading to Gavin Warrington who was tackled close to the line,
the ball was quickly recycled and passed out the backline to the impressive Zach Charlton who
showed his pace to beat the Cavan winger and score in the corner to give ‘Skins a deserved lead, 3 –
5.
Enniskillen, with their noses in front, continued to dominate the scrum, not allowing the Cavan
pack an inch. The result being a Cavan prop going off “injured” resulting in uncontested scrums,
which hindered Skins progress.
Cavan would then score their first try on 55minutes. The Cavan prop was held up over the line, but
after a 30 second delay the referee decided that the try had been scored, which Cavan converted to
retake the lead, 10 – 5.
‘Skins were furious and this showed with a lapse of concentration resulting in the only missed tackle
of the game by a ‘Skin, allowing Cavan to score their second try which was converted to stretch
their lead to 17 – 5.
This was the final score of the game and ‘Skins trudged off the field hugely disappointed at the
injustice of the decisions that went against them. However it was a much changed team that
showed huge improvements from the opening defeat to Omagh the previous week, in particular the
defence.
Special mention must go to the “Moment of the Match” when Peter Fee smashed one of the Cavan
backs and roaring “Yeah, lets play rugby now!”
