After the long journey up to Coleraine RFC it was a very slow start for the Enniskillen U16 side, who were perhaps slightly over confident after the convincing win earlier in the season, though credit must be given to Coleraine who right from the whistle showed that they intended to really get stuck in and went through several phases off play with their forwards carrying and gaining ground on the Skins defence, there were some big tackles going in and for the first 20 minutes both teams failed to gain significant advantage.
The stalemate was broken on 22min when Rory Morris ran a great angle to power over for the first score which stand in place kicker Jamie Kelly slotted over for a seven point lead.
Again the Coleraine forwards were proving very effective in open play and forced several turnovers which their backs failed to capitalize on. The young Skins pack then started to impose themselves with front row forward David Jenkins stealing a loose ball and passing to scrum-half Josh Kyle who slipped a cracking pass to Eoin Cleary who nearly made it to the line but had winger Connor Kent flying up to take the offload and score in the corner, young Kelly showed his power with another impressive conversion.
A lack of concentration allowed the home side to start the second half with an unconverted score and bring the advantage down to nine points.
The effort of defending against strong runs from Cleary Kelly and Tyler Millar started to tire the Coleraine lads and from a scum ten yards out no.8 Kelly was never going to be stopped for his first try, the missed conversion meant a 14 point lead at 19 to 5.
Once again Coleraine were quicker to the break down after the ref gave them the advantage and a cross field kick was dropped on by their winger for a further 5 point score.
With Coleraine trying to push the ball wide the game opened up for the last ten minutes and it was Enniskillen whose superior fitness allowed them to take advantage of the spaces which were created, firstly Conor Kent made a great break through the centre channel and the forwards were there quickly to recycle allowing scrum-half Kyle to release Tyler Millar for a real team try, which Kelly converted to give a fifteen point margin.
The last play of the game once again brought Kelly more points but it was through his power and determination not his kicking skills, from a strong scrum the no.8 picked and went, there were three defenders to beat and that’s exactly what happened as he crossed the try line for Skins’ final points and a good win over a much improved Coleraine side the tally was 31 to 10.
This was the penultimate game of the under 16’s league campaign and having already wrapped up the Ulster Branch Section Two they have a home game against Belfast club Malone next weekend to look forward to. Kick off is 11am and all support would be greatly appreciated.
LEAGUE TABLE U16 LEAGUE SECTION 2
Pos Club P W D L F A Pts
1 Enniskillen 15 14 0 1 512 134 42
2 Letterkenny 14 9 1 4 182 124 33
3 Malone 13 8 1 4 301 184 30
4 Omagh 14 6 0 8 160 254 26
5 Ballyclare 14 7 0 7 181 240 26
6 Dromore 12 8 0 4 285 64 24
7 Coleraine 13 3 1 9 85 248 16
8 Portadown 13 1 1 11 92 468 13
9 Donegal Town 14 3 0 11 84 166 4
