Omagh U13’s entertained neighbours in a friendly on Saturday past in a warm up ahead of next weeks cup match against Letterkenny.
Omagh 28 : 36 Enniskillen
Omagh U13’s entertained neighbours in a friendly on Saturday past in a warm up ahead of next weeks cup match against Letterkenny.
It was good for the boys to get back on the pitch after such a long spell of wet weather and it turned out to be a perfect morning for rugby.
Enniskillen brought a strong squad and scored early when their biggest player ran through some weak defence. Omagh hit back almost immediately when Joseph Mc Garvey raced the length of the field to score. The Omagh boys quickly realised that it was easier to go round their bigger opponents than through them and Joseph Mc Garvey repeated the feat shortly after.
Joseph wasn’t the only back to shine in open play with Bailey Irvine ripping the opposition to threads every time he got his hands on the ball. After one of a number of such breaks Bailey fed inside to the supporting Daniel Monaghan who raced over for his first try of the season.
With Matthew Murnaghan successfully converting all of the tries the Accies led 21:12 with not long to halftime.
Unfortunately much of the good work in attack was undone by a lack of aptitude for Defence. Although Brian Furey, Glenn McKinley and Philip Rainey worked tirelessly there was inadequate aggression from the rest of the pack and this allowed the Enniskillen forwards to dominate possession. In fact, if it wasn’t for brave tackles by Michael Marechaux and Cu Mhara Duffy in particular Enniskillen would have cancelled out the Accies lead before halftime. As it happened the teams turned round with the Accies still ahead 21:17.
The second half was nip and tuck with first Enniskillen and then Omagh scoring. Bailey Irvine raced over for a try that his performance deserved after a quickly taken penalty with Matthew Murnaghan maintaining his 100% record with the conversion. Enniskillen scored again to leave the score 29:28 in the visitors favour.
The Accies threw caution to the wind and after a sustained period of pressure almost got over for a fifth try before Enniskillen scored again in the dying seconds.
This was a very entertaining match played in the right way and was very useful for both teams ahead of the cup season. Enniskillen struggled with the Omagh back play whilst Omagh found it difficult to cope with the direct physical approach from the larger Enniskillen forwards. Too often Omagh failed to contest the breakdown allowing the young Skins retain or turnover possession far too easily. That is the biggest issue that will have to be addressed at training on Thursday ahead of the cup match against Letterkenny next week
