Enniskillen U18’s 46
Cavan U18’s 5
On a cold wet blustery Saturday morning Enniskillen RFC welcomed Cavan’s Youth teams to their Club, with the weather conditions poor it wasn’t going to be a day for fast flowing, expansive Rugby.
Skins 18’s kicked off and immediately put pressure on Cavan through Winger Dillan Roberts, who chased down the kick and made a great tackle on the receiver to keep Cavan in their own half. The Skins forwards went through several phases of play and then put quick ball out to the backs for Fullback Michael O’Hare to power over the line for an unconverted try on the 4th minute.
The Skins pack was causing Cavan plenty of problems and 5 minutes later No 10 Jarlath Maguire spotted Cavan’s Fullback wasn’t at home and kicked a ball over Cavan’s defensive line for flanker Eoin Cleary to chase down, then consequently beating two defenders to score a converted try to leave the score 12 nil to Skins. The young Skins side knocked the ball on deep in their own half after a great restart kick from Cavan and from the resulting scrum Cavan scored an unconverted try to reduce the deficit, the score 12-5 to Skins. On the 15th minute after great work from Props David Jenkins and Rory Morris at the breakdowns, possession was turned and quick ball went out to Centre Tyler Millar to run in his first converted try of the day to leave the score 19-5. At this stage Skins were dominating all aspects of the game and went through 10 phases of play with some great ball carries through Second Row Aaron Kelly who was having an outstanding game. After sucking in the Cavan defence they got the ball out to Centre Tyler Millar who ran from the halfway line and powered over the line to score his second try of the day to leave the score 24-5 to Skins.
For the next 15 minutes the Cavan defence kept Skins at bay but it was finally broken on the 35th minute after several phases of play and a slick offloading game which ended with centre Adrian Maguire powering over the line to score an unconverted try to leave the halftime score 29-5 to Skins.
Cavan Kicked off the second half and for the next 15 minutes they were making good ground but couldn’t break down the tough Skins defence; great tackles being made by Winger partners Daniel Roofe and Lee Linsey. On the 50th minute, after Second Row Diarmuid Scallon turned over a ball at the breakdown, Skins sent quick ball to Centre Tyler Millar for him to cut open Cavan’s backline and score a converted try to increase the Skins lead to 36-5. Then 10 minutes later Centre Tyler Millar scored his fourth of the day once again off the back of an impressive offloading game in poor conditions; quick ball reached Millar who beat three defenders and powered over the line to leave the score 41-5 to Skins. On the 65th minute Skins won a lineout on Cavan’s 22 yard line and mauled over Cavan’s line for Hooker Dylan McKervey to score an unconverted try and leave the final score 46-5 to Skins. The last try summed up the Skins performance from start to finish, they dominated the game, but credit must be given to Cavan who battled admirably until the final whistle.
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Enniskillen U16 43
Cavan U16 3
Enniskillen U16’s continued their winning ways with a 43-0 victory against neighbours Cavan last Saturday. Conditions made it difficult for both sides and in particular the home side found it difficult to play their usual expansive, free flowing style with the slippy muddied ball. Skins got on the scoreboard early with a barging run from Conal Sweeney and shortly after in similar fashion Aaron Clarke got on the score sheet with a trade mark run. Surprisingly this was to be the last score of the 1st half when the recurring problem around the rucks caused the game to slow down to a snail’s pace, allowing Cavan an eternity to reset their defences at every breakdown. This was disappointing as the young Skins side had recently devoted much time towards improving their clearout to allow quick ball and complement their fast style of rugby. Skins turned around at the half 12-0 to the good and with hopes that things would change in the second half but the problems were to continue for Skins and only a combination of missed tackles from Cavan and elusive running from Jack O’Hare at scrum half kept Skins scoreboard ticking over again. More tries followed when a rare string of passes found Oisin Jackson out wide and he weaved his way to the try line making it 22-0. Not to be outdone the forwards got another score when Niall Keenan cantered half the length of the pitch unchallenged to touchdown under the posts. With the match safe it was time to roll on the subs and Matty Brown almost immediately added an injection of pace to cut a line through a tired Cavan defence to score between the sticks. One final score was to come and it was from the captain Daire Hill as he scored his long awaited first try of the season when he spurned some options on his outside and fortunately just stretched over the line. Oisin Monaghan made the final score 43-0 with 3 conversions in the half.
The defensive efforts from Skins on the day couldn’t be questioned, in particular the smaller centre partnership of Quill and Flynn who punched above their weight throughout the contest, as they have done all season against many an opposing Goliath. While it was unquestionably a well deserved result there is still a lot of untapped potential in this side who look as if their best rugby remains to be played, and hopefully with some fine tuning on the training park this will come out in future fixtures.
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Enniskillen U14 5
Cavan U14 54
Enniskillen under-14s have struggled with numbers recently but managed to field a full 15 for the second time this season as they hosted the more experienced Cavan side. This group continues to grow and improve week on week and showed good defence initially to stop the Cavan attack but struggled to reorganise for second phase, giving a couple of very strong runners from Cavan the chance to score. Their extremely talented out half converted all there scores in the first half to galvanise the scoreline. However the visitors didn’t have it all their own way and there were some excellent signs of potential from the developing 14s; Jacob Brown starting at hooker for the first time took a number of scrums against the head and his line out throwing was impressive. Aidan Daly and Jack Courtney starting at 9 and 10 for the first time worked well together and didn’t look out of place. All the squad deserve a mention for their commitment and resolve as, despite being 35 points down, they went out and made a solid competition of the second half. A turnover at a ruck following the restart secured ball with Chris Elliott smashing through to score on his debut. The young side fought hard for the second half and Cavan had to work diligently for three further tries, the last being the final play of the game. Despite a scoreline of 54 to 5 it was still clear that progress is being made and with increased numbers out at training this team will have an exciting season ahead. Any year 9 or 10 boys interested in playing are more than welcome at training on Wednesday night 7pm to 8.30 pm.
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Under 13 Girls Shine at Halftime of Ireland Ladies Fixture
Enniskillen Under-13 girls put in a stellar performance at halftime during Ireland Women’s defeat to Canada at the weekend as they took on an Under-13 side from high profile Athlone club Buccaneers. The girls took to the pitch against Buccaneers and won the game comfortably as they ran in 6 tries to nil, highlighting the great current foundations for ladies rugby at ERFC.
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Enniskillen U15 Girls 24
Virginia U15 Girl 7
The Enniskillen Under-15 Girls took on a much fancied Virginia side on Sunday at Mullaghmeen.
Skins took to the field with revenge in mind after suffering a heavy defeat at the hand of Virginia last year. Enniskillen dominated the early exchanges, running the ball back at every opportunity and making great inroads through the heart of the Virginia pack, and it was not long before they got their reward; after a great steal at the ruck form Ellen Brownlee and some inter passing saw Cassie Maguire crossing for a well taken try.
With the dominance that the Enniskillen pack was now showing it was not long before the ever busy Captain Lauren Kilfedder crossed for skins’ second try. Enniskillen moved the ball around the park effortlessly in testing conditions and Zoe McCutcheon, who made some powerful runs all day, raced home to score Enniskillen’s third try, converted by Nadine Hunter to give Skins an impressive 17-0 half time lead.
Enniskillen did not have it all their own way and Virginia came back into the game in the second half. Skins had to defend for large periods but their defence was resolute and some big tackling in the pack and superb counter rucking made life difficult for Virginia. With Skins camped on their own line for a period of time Virginia managed to score their only try of the game, converted to leave the score 17-7 with 10 minutes to play. This score seem to galvanise Enniskillen and some strong running by Lauren Kilfedder, Sophie Barrett, Alana Brennan and Nadine Hunter led to the impressive India Daley crossing the line for the final try, converted by Hunter to leave the final score 24-7. This was a magnificent team performance that showed great heart and spirit form everyone involved. Enniskillen now move into the Christmas period with two matches left to play in December but remain unbeaten.
