Bangor – 10 Enniskillen – 11
\nEnniskillen made the long journey to Bangor last Saturday looking to avenge the defeat in the
\nopening match of the season and were delighted to come away with the points after a narrow win.
\nIn very difficult conditions ‘Skins had first use of a biting wind, but it was Bangor however who had
\nthe better of the first half, sensibly holding on to the ball and driving at the visitors with the ‘Skins
\ndefence was strangely passive with defenders holding off their man.
\nIt was Enniskillen who managed to take a lead through the boot of Chris McVitty but defensive
\nfrailties allowed Bangor in for a soft converted try to more than overturn the advantage. ‘Skins
\nwere struggling to put phases together and on a number of occasions simply kicked the ball away.
\nThe second half performance was much better as ‘Skins started to keep the ball in hand and this
\nalong with some good set pieces helped to steady the ship.
\nAlthough Bangor increased their lead with a penalty ‘Skins started to run at Bangor with centres
\nMark Hurst and skipper Alan Wilkinson in particular catching the eye. Leading scorer Andrew
\nDixon also made a few telling runs and from a backs move Dixon broke free making good ground
\nbefore finding Felix Quigley in support, showing great pace and awareness to score what turned
\nout to be the winning try.
\nThis was a victory ‘Skins just about deserved on the balance of play but they will have to improve
\ngreatly ahead of their Town\u2019s Cup quarter-final this coming week.<\/p>\n
Enniskillen 3rd XV – 14 Rainey 4th XV – 12
\nEnniskillen entertained Rainey 4’s in the Quarter Final of The Butler Shield on a day where all four
\nseasons came in typical Fermanagh style, and the home side knew that they would have to raise
\ntheir level of performance to progress to the semi-final of the competition.
\n‘Skins started with a strong breeze at their back, but it was the visitors who were in control,
\napplying the early pressure, but staunch defence kept the Magherafelt men out. Outhalf Keith
\nHurst had the firsts coring attempt as he tried a range finder of a penalty kick from half way, but the
\nbreeze at his back just pushed it wide.
\nThe Enniskillen pack were on top in the tight and Steven Frazer in particular was very impressive,
\nhooking at least eight balls against the head. Hurst made no mistake with his second attempt at
\nthe posts and shortly after made another succesful effort to put his side 6 – 0 up.
\nThe game was turning rather ferocious and there were several nasty off the ball incidents but
\n‘Skins to their credit did not react, and in general the team’s discipline was very impressive, after
\nseveral games where it left alot to be desired!
\nOn the half hour ‘Skins increased thier lead, a pre rehearsed lineout move saw Frankie Fee take
\nclean ball and pop to Ross Duncan who as usual crashed over the line with a trail of opposition
\nattempted tacklers wondering just what had happenned! The touchline conversion was missed.
\nSkins were 11 – 0 up at the break.
\nAs the second half started, so did a torrential hail shower, leaving the game almost unplayable!
\nRainey took advantage of the situation and scored two tries with skins blinded by the hail shower
\ninto their faces. One of the conversions was succesful to give the visitors a 12 – 11 lead.
\n‘Skins knew this was it, they had to raise their performance, and eventually after alot of controlled
\nposession, the visitors conceded a cynical penalty in front of their posts when a home try was
\ninevitable! Hurst slotted it over, putting the Fermanagh men back in the lead 14 -12.
\nWith a slender lead ‘Skins played the next few phases rather nervously with the vistors bouyed
\nknowing they had to score, and that any score would put them back in the driving seat. But some
\nfantastic play from Fee, Duncan, Frazer, Warrington and Rodney Kingston in particular kept the
\nhome side in control. Then just as the referee signalled the last play of the game the home side
\nwere harshly penalised thirty yards from their own posts, in the middle of the field. Rainey knew
\nthis would win them the game and as their winger stepped up to take the kick you could hear a pin
\ndrop at Mullaghmeen. Somehow he managed to screw it to the left of the posts, when it seemed
\neasier to convert and the referee sounded the whistle and the home side knew they had been let of
\nthe hook big style!
\nAll eighteen men put in a fantasic effort and are rewarded with a semi final spot, looking to bring
\nThe Butler Shield back to Enniskillen RFC for the first time since the year 2000<\/p>\n
Enniskillen \u2013 17 Omagh \u2013 10
\nOn a perfect evening for playing rugby, it was Omagh who started the proceedings more brightly
\nand after four minutes fullback Neil Mellon opened the scoring with a well-struck drop goal.
\nThe following period of the game was fairly even with Enniskillen starting to come into the game.
\nOn the 20 minute mark, Omagh outhalf Lee Warnock scored the opening try of the game, breaking
\nthrough the Enniskillen defence to score under the posts. Mellon converted to leave the score
\nreading10-0.
\nThe Fermanagh side had chances to cut the lead in the first half but too
\nmany errors saw them going into the interval trailing 10-0.
\n‘Skins raised their game and after a sustained period of play Enniskillen
\nopened there account with a try scored by Kyle Moffat. The extras were
\nadded by outhalf John Maguire.
\nEnniskillen continued to improve and Alex Gormley rounded off some
\nfine play to score in the corner. Maguire\u2019s superb touchline conversion
\nand another penalty left the final score reading 17-10 to Enniskillen.
\nThe man of the match award was awarded to Omagh prop Lee
\nMcLaughlin for his impressive work both in the scrum and the loose.
\nEnniskillen now join Clogher Valley in the hat for the quarter final draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangor – 10 Enniskillen – 11 Enniskillen made the long journey to Bangor last Saturday looking to avenge the defeat in the opening match of the season and were delighted to come away with the points after a narrow win. In very difficult conditions ‘Skins had first use of a biting wind, but it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[482,3],"tags":[7125,6556,6110,5714,17216,8295,5519,17237,4275,4277,4278,5304,7482,17230,5896,5816,7309,4179,3977,4280,4281,6183],"class_list":["post-22550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enniskillen","category-ulster-rugby","tag-7125","tag-6556","tag-6110","tag-5714","tag-bangor","tag-butler","tag-cup","tag-enniskillen","tag-i","tag-iii","tag-iv","tag-notes","tag-ob","tag-omagh","tag-rainey","tag-rfc","tag-run","tag-shield","tag-u19","tag-v","tag-xv","tag-6183"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22553,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22550\/revisions\/22553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}