A bumper crowd turned out to watch this local derby last Friday night, a match that ‘Skins should have gotten more from, especially given their domination of both possession and territory in the second half.
It was Enniskillen who opened the scoring after ten minutes, when James McIntyre made up for an earlier miss by slotting over a penalty after the forwards had driven over a ball that had looked to be lost, in a classic counter ruck.
Omagh were reduced to fourteen after twenty-five when their prop was yellow-carded and ‘Skins drove to the visitors’ line but lost possession and worst came three minutes later. With the scrums reduced to the farce that is “uncontested” owing to the sin-bin, Omagh capitalised on the quality possession in the middle of the park and some poor tackling on ‘Skins part to create an overlap and a converted try.
Then two minutes before the break Omagh doubled their score with another simple try as a player come straight through a ruck almost untouched and fed the supporting player for a second converted try to lead 14 – 3 at halftime.
‘Skins came out firing at the start of the second half and almost scored with just three minutes gone, but with the line in sight stand-in skipper Trevor Whitaker just failed to round the last man and was tackled into touch.
Omagh only managed to make two forays into ‘Skins territory and the first of these after eight minutes saw a sweeping Omagh move from deep in their own half end with an excellent tackle, holding the ball carrier up over the line, but such tackles were in short supply in the build up to the finish.
‘Skins then managed to score their solitary try after seventeen minutes and it came after they had lost possession in the attacking third, having passed up a penalty opportunity, only to force a turnover and Gavin Parke managed to score an unconverted try.
‘Skins kicking woes continued as a long-range penalty fell short and try as they might they could not penetrate a resolute Omagh defensive line, despite controlling possession right to the end.
A very disappointing result for the majority of the big crowd and a big test comes this Saturday in the shape of unbeaten league leaders CIYMS, who come to Mullaghmeen in good fettle.
Team: Alan Ferguson, Richard Beatty, Gareth Beatty, Cathal McGarry, David Buchanan, Hazlit Brien, Gavin Parke, Jamie Johnston, Ricky Connor, James McIntyre, Ally Duncan, Paul Burns, Chris Dickey, Trevor Whitaker, Mark O’Shea.
Fixtures
1st XV – Home – CIYMS
2nd XV – Away – Carrick
4th XV – Home – Ballynahinch
Mini-rugby – Away – Monaghan
