Enniskillen ladies took to a sunny Mullaghmeen to play Barnhall in their last league fixture of the season after a rather long break of 5 weeks without a match.
The lack of match practice didn’t show, with the ‘Skins girls piling on the pressure from the outset. Some strong running, and great ball retention, from the forwards allowed scrumhalf Noreen Nethercott to get clean ball to Ashling Maguire, who used her impressive strength to cross the line to put ‘Skins on the score board. Outhalf Caoimhe Morris made no mistake in adding the extras to leave ‘Skins 7 – 0 up, with less than ten minutes on the clock.
From the restart ‘Skins continued to pressurise the Barnhall defence, with impressive ball carrying from the props, Catherine Mallon and Maguire, and also from Collette McMorrow, who had stepped in for her debut in the number 8 jersey. Added to the mix was some lovely moves thrown in from the backs, who were unlucky not to score when Morris was tackled on the tryline. Also, another impressive move from the backline seemed to have put the vivacious centre Brenda Brogan through the defence, but only a horrifically high tackle managing to stop her in her tracks.
Strong scrummaging from both sides saw both teams winning ball against the head in a good contest up-front and it soon became apparent that Barnhall had not travelled to Mullaghmeen to be walked over. With ball in hand, the visitors’ strong back row and backline looked increasingly dangerous, but ‘Skins managed to keep their defensive line strong with big hits coming in from Wendy Rogers, Helen Carleton and Sinead O’Donovan, and when the forwards managed to secure any turnover ball, inch-perfect kicking cleared the ball out of the danger zone.
Barnhall did manage to break through the Enniskillen defence, with only a fantastic back tracking, try saving, tackle from Collette McMorrow keeping them off the scoreboard. But, as Barnhall began to struggle to contain ‘Skins strong runners, their defensive discipline continued to disintegrate and after a warning, the Barnhall number 8 was dismissed to the sin bin for 10 minutes due to another dangerously high tackle shortly before half time.
With the opposition’s main playmaker in the bin from the restart, Skins knew they must capitalise on their numerical advantage, however, a mistake allowed Barnhall to react first to gain territory, with O’Donovan again putting in another huge hit to stop them.
‘Skins managed to then secure turnover ball and worked their way back into the Barnhall ‘22’. Some great handling through the backline saw the ball to winger Leanne Hall who stepped inside, sucking in the last defender, and with Brogan looping around, she managed to make the offload for Brogan to dive into the corner to put Enniskillen 12 – 0 up.
The difficult conversion was missed and with Barnhall back to 15, some impressive, flowing rugby followed from both teams. A tremendous run from Shauna McMorrow saw her carry the ball well into the Barnhall half, with super strength seeing her drive three defenders back until her support arrived, allowing Nethercott to get the ball to the backs on the front foot. Another phase of super ball handling through the backline looked like Tara McDonough had put Brogan in for try number three, but the pass was deemed forward and Barnhall were able to clear their line with the resulting scrum and kick.
Perhaps the highlight of the match followed when the usually composed and flawless Morris received the ball and with no defence even close by managed to trip over her own “shoelaces” onto her face.
Barnhall were determined to put themselves on the scoreboard, and with two minutes on the clock were piling on the pressure, but when they did manage to break the defensive line, Brogan used her speed to pull off a try saving tackle. The rest of the ‘Skins girls did well to get back to help her out and were rewarded when the pressure on the ball resulted in a mistake from the opposition, thus ending the match with a clean sheet.
‘Skins were very pleased to end their season of much improvement on a high. The future for this young team does look very bright, with an encouraging number of new players coming into the team this season. Each match has seen the girls go from strength to strength, and while the coaches have lots to work on with the girls they are optimistic for next season.
