Enniskillen First XV continued their good form at the weekend with a resounding victory over league newcomers Holywood at home in what was to be a one sided affair in favour of the home side.
The physicality of the Skins’ side looked to be a cut above from the outset with a solid take at the restart from David Buchanan leading to an unstoppable run up the midfield, then a follow up run from towering second row partner Danny Maguire leaving the visitors undoubtedly shellshocked. The interplay between Enniskillen’s backs and forwards was equally sublime and this allowed Skins’ ball carriers to utilise some of the space out wide and really force some difficult tackles out of the Holywood backs.
It was Holywood who scored the first points when one of their backs broke through to gain substantial territory against the run of play, only for a fantastic cover tackle from Ashley Finlay to thwart a certain try, but after some attempts to cross the gain line the visitors were forced to come away with a mere 3 points from a penalty at the breakdown.
A knock on deep in the Holywood half left Enniskillen again unable to gain points despite playing all the Rugby, thankfully Skins continued their excellent scrummaging form with prop combo Richard and Gareth Beatty, and hooker Steven Fox taking the Holywood put-in with a devastating drive, and following a couple of close quarter carries Nick Finaly executed a kick over the top and took the ball perfectly on the bounce to score under the posts, and then convert to leave the score 7-3.
An attempted reprisal from Holywood was repelled with solid defence from Enniskillen and a typical big hit from Michael Cadden. With a scrum penalty and ball in hand yet again the Skins forwards carried relentlessly and effectively drew in the opposition defence, leaving plenty of space out wide for a nice display of handling in the back line to put Nathan Richmond across the line for the second score.
Enniskillen continued in the ascendency and could have potentially racked up a lot more points but for some small errors and indiscipline, on a few occasions they were penalised for holding on at the ruck which may have been a result of the high frequency of line breaks causing some players to get isolated often. Despite this Skins continued to play expansive Rugby with the back line looking dangerous and young First XV debutant Conor Hoy appearing very threatening on the wing. Jamie Johnston was unlucky to have a try held up following a clinical line out but the resulting Scrum was excellent and ended in a pushover try for the home side.
Holywood really looked to be struggling at the end of the half with Gareth Beatty, Maguire and Buchanan all making excellent yards when carrying ball and inflicting huge collisions on the opposition, Richmond at inside centre also made good ground and soon brought play back up in sight of the Holywood try line. Some well spotted space by Kaine Holden on the blind side of the ruck gave him his first try with a run from the 5 metre line off scrum half Paddy McCleery.
The second half looked to be staged for more of the same with Ashley Finlay at full-back nullifying any attempt by the visitors to gain territory and Nick Finlay at out-half continuing to use his numerous battering ram options to excellent effect. With an overlap out wide Nick executed a nicely timed miss pass to full back Ashley who managed to get the offload away to winger Zach Charlton for a try in the corner. Soon afterwards a spectacular try came for Alan Wilkinson who, unable to take a wayward pass, went for an agricultural volley on the half way which happened to bounce perfectly for a bewildered Wilkinson on the chase, taking the ball with glee and scoring under the posts.
Enniskillen’s dominance had a brief intermission as Gareth Beatty was unfortunate to see a yellow card for a late hit. Holywood enjoyed a lot of possession in this period and were at a stage pressuring the Enniskillen try line but failed to be consistently clinical enough to get a score, and credit to Enniskillen whose defensive structure was excellent and forced numerous errors, allowing Nick Finlay to eventually clear. Good yards were made from an Ashley Finlay counter attack which was then shifted out wide through David Buchanan to Conor Hoy on the wing, who showed great awareness to get the offload away to Alan Wilkinson for his second try.
Good running from Johnston and Finlay yet again had Skins back in the opposition half immediately after the restart and trundling up the field, and with scrum-half McCleery rucking industriously, Cadden reacted well to shift the ball out to Zach Charlton to score in the corner. Holywood looked to have little left in the tank at this stage and after another charge up field a knock on gave Holywood the put-in for a scrum on the 5 metre, which Enniskillen then mercilessly took against the head, obliterating the opposing pack in the process, Number 8 Johnston picked and went for the line but saw fit to give the pass to Wilkinson running a hard line from inside centre, securing his hat trick for the day.
The game was then controversially blown up early by the referee for apparent safety reasons as numerous Holywood players seemed to be struggling to carry on, leaving the final score at 57-3.
Captain Jamie Johnston was positive about the result and highlighted the controlled performance in what was a one sided contest.
“I am obviously very pleased with the result from Saturday, another bonus point win at home. In particular I was really impressed with how we kept our structure. Often times with a high scoring game like this the team in the ascendency can be lured into trying to score from every phase. I was really pleased that we remained composed and continued to play within our structures, going through the phases and then scoring tries when we had stretched the defence. Our video analysis this week will be very productive with lots of opportunity to assess our attacking ability.”
Enniskillen now face a huge task away to Qualifying One league leaders Instonians this Saturday in the Millar McCall Wylie Junior Cup Semi-Final, but this in form Skins side has been staging upsets all season and any opposition would be foolish to underestimate the challenge.
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ENNISKILLEN 2ND XV
BELFAST HARLEQUINS 3XV
On Saturday Enniskillen Seconds entertained a very strong Harlequins Third XV side but fortunately had some new faces to try out and were happy to welcome back Michael Law from his recent rugby absence due to long term injury.
Enniskillen from the start knew they had to take the game to Harlequins, and this is what they did. With the help of some aggressive carrying, and harlequins falling off tackles from early on, it was not long until Eniiskillen had their first try through Cathal McGarry. Enniskillen from the restart again were really starting to impose themselves on the game with backs and forwards interlinking extremely well, leading to another Enniskillen try through Robert Connor.
Enniskillen then took their foot off the gas for a period, unaided by Stevie Frazer going off after a huge collision with the Harlequins No.8, both players requiring a long afternoon in A&E. Harlequins benefitted from this lapse in concentration with two soft penalties before the end of the half.
A lively halftime team talk clearly had the intended effect and the Skins men started the second half just as they started the first. It was evident Enniskillen had focused heavily on streamlining their line out performance during the week and it didn’t disappoint with a near 100% success record on the day, this gave a great platform for mauls to succeed and led to tries from Stevie Welsh, Ricky Lee and Ross Duncan. Stevie Welsh went on to score a hat trick for what was to be a great day of rugby for the tight head prop.
Harlequins were let back into the game briefly to score 2 tries from slack play when Skins were reduced to 14 men due to Stuart Bradshaw going off with a suspected broken arm. The last 10 minutes were strong from the home side, with great sideline support from the First XV who finished their game prematurely, and the final score an impressive 39-15 to Enniskillen.
Captain Alan Ferguson was extremely happy with the performance.
“The pack worked tirelessly throughout the game and i’m extremely proud of the work ethic. It’s great to see the back line starting to click too and i’ve no doubt if we keep up the effort at training we’ll start to cut teams apart”.
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Enniskillen Ladies 59 v Omagh Ladies 0
Saturday 22nd November 2014
Saturday night after Ireland’s magnificent win in Dublin, Enniskillen Ladies took on local rivals Omagh Ladies at home in their first ever derby game.
After some brilliant performances of late Skins new coach Robert Watson was expecting another good performance. Omagh came into the game as relative newcomers to rugby but straight from the off they got stuck into Skins. They played some good rugby hard and direct and made some headway through some lackluster defending. After 5 minutes it was all Omagh putting together numerous phases of attack. After this period of defence Skins, through S.McMorrow, Brogan and Hallett gained possession and broke through tackles to score against the run of play when Noreen Nethercott went under the posts for her first try.
From the restart, Skins moved the ball quickly from their half into an offensive attack. Hallett made a break bringing play to Omaghs 22 but a turnover from Omagh and Skins are on the backfoot. C. McMorrow puts in a big hit and forces a knock on which results in a Skins scrum, several phases of well worked plays between forwards and backs and a ferocious line from Teague to score Skins 2nd try.
Skins third try came from Ashling Maguire who took the ball from the restart and crashed into contact, and after a number of phases working their way down the pitch, Skins set Maguire up to finish what she started where she fought her way with ball in hand over the line and under the posts.
Teague breaks through Omaghs line with superb strength and from the next few rucks, C.McMorrow takes a spectacular line, at blistering pace and goes over for a try.Back on the attack again and the ball is pushed to the right wing and into the hands of McCaffrey who gets the penalty for a high tackle on her at the 10 metre line. Nethercotts quick thinking while the opposition are sleeping allows her to dance through the defence and score yet again.
For the next few moments, Omagh create several phases of crash ball but don’t get the ball out to their wings quick enough and are quickly wrapped up. Enniskillen force a line out in Omaghs 22, sucking in the defence, allowing Hall to deliver quick ball out to Skins backline but unfortunately a knock on due to greasy conditions and a scrum is awarded to Omagh in which the ball goes dead and half time called.
After the restart which seen Omagh kicking off right into the hands of Fionnuala Glover,
who crashed the ball straight up the middle of the defence, there was some good phases of getting the ball out to the wing, but the slippery conditions came into play again with Enniskillen loosing control of the ball and letting Omagh make a break for the try line, this was driven into touch by Maguire and Evans. The line out was easily won by Enniskillen and after some fantastic kicking from Murphy and sustained pressure from the whole skins side, Noreen Nethercott broke through for her fifth try of the night, this was then easily converted by Murphy.
Skins were on the attack from the kick off, not letting the lead come into play and keeping their heads in the game. There was some really fantastic constructive play, with Brogan sucking in the defence, which allowed Hall to link with Murphy, which seen her score her first try of the season.
From the kick off, Enniskillen were back in the game, with Thompson running a fantastic line right into the Omagh 22, were she was tackled, the ball was moved out from the ruck but the game was halted due to the Omagh tackler still being down, a penalty was given however due to a number of injuries Omagh forcing the team down to 11 players, they were forced to call the game early. Leaving the score 59-0 to Enniskillen.
Coach Rob Watson, while disappointed with how the game ended, was delighted with the Ladies, third consecutive win which has left them in a very good position in the League with only two games left to go. The Ladies will being Playing Ballynahinch away on Sunday 30th.
Training continues Tuesday at 6.30pm and Thursday at 8pm.
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