Enniskillen continued their undefeated start to the season last Saturday with a comprehensive 38 –
\n10 win against a struggling Larne side, languishing at the bottom of Kukri 2.
\nThe day started on a sour note however with in-form goal kicker, and out-half, Chris McVitty being
\nwithdrawn after injuring an ankle in the warm-up. The enforced change in the back-line saw Nigel
\nJohnston moving in to out-half and 18 year old John Maguire being called up for his first start in an
\nEnniskillen 1st XV jersey.
\nA cagey opening to the game saw Enniskillen largely on the defensive for the opening minutes with
\nthe heavy Larne forward pack taking it to the hosts, but being repeatedly repelled by an impressive
\nEnniskillen defence, that has only leaked 4 tries thus far this season. The defensive pressure finally
\ntold on the guests, when in the fourth minute good link up play by Felix Quigley and the rampaging
\nGavin Parke led to the the ball being shipped wide, with a nice move finally being finished of by the
\nsupporting Eddie Roofe, 5 \u2013 0 ‘Skins.
\nFurther tight play ensued, with Larne again having a large proportion of the ball, but with the
\nEnniskillen scrum, anchored by Richie Beatty, starting to assert its dominance, the visitors were
\nstarting to run out of ideas in attack and resorted to kicking the ball away. Unfortunately
\nEnniskillen failed to clear their lines effectively, eventually giving away a penalty which the visitors
\nconverted to reduce the arrears to 5 \u2013 3.
\nUndeterred Enniskillen regrouped and started to move the ball more effectively, spreading the Larne
\ndefence which was starting to show signs of fatigue. Enniskillen through the direct running of
\ncentre Alan Wilkinson and tough New Zealander Robbie Murray were beginning to make breaks,
\nbut unfortunately some sloppy handling errors squandered try scoring opportunities. Wilkinson did
\nget his reward shortly after, when good phase play and slick hands by stand in out half Johnston and
\ncentre Donagh O’Callaghan, led to him crashing over in the corner for a well deserved try just
\nbefore half-time to leave it at 10 \u2013 3 come the interval.
\nAfter the break Enniskillen’s dominance in defence and in the scrum continued and they punished
\nLarne’s ill-discipline, gaining superior field position, which they then took advantage of when
\nEnniskillen’s talismanic number 8 Jamie Johnston crashed over from a scrum close to the Larne try
\nline for another score. 17 \u2013 3.
\nThe following try for winger Alistair Duncan was the highlight of the game and a thing of beauty
\nfrom the front row forwards, in particular prop Richie Beatty. After some nice build up play and
\nsome classy handling by prop Quigley and hooker Murray, Beatty found himself in space on the
\nwing and nonchalantly put a perfectly weighted grubber kick through which Duncan raced on to,
\ncollected, and touched down for a superb Enniskillen try. 24 \u2013 3 to the hosts.
\nBuoyed by the previous score Enniskillen heaped the pressure on the increasingly despondent
\nvisitors and a lose pass by the Larne back line was gratefully gathered by centre O’Callaghan who
\nraced 40 metres to touch down under the posts. 31 \u2013 3.
\nThings were starting to open up for the home team who scored again shortly after, through an
\nincisive midfield break by Murray but unfortunately they then conceded a intercept try in the final
\nminutes which left the final score a respectable 38 \u2013 10.
\nA good performance by the undefeated Skins team, but with several squandered opportunities, it
\ncould have been even better. Enniskillen now face two crucial fixtures against in form Grosvenor
\nfollowed by Bangor RFC, which are must win games if their title ambitions are to be realised. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Enniskillen continued their undefeated start to the season last Saturday with a comprehensive 38 – 10 win against a struggling Larne side, languishing at the bottom of Kukri 2. The day started on a sour note however with in-form goal kicker, and out-half, Chris McVitty being withdrawn after injuring an ankle in the warm-up. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[482],"tags":[4719,17237,3959],"class_list":["post-34861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enniskillen","tag-club","tag-enniskillen","tag-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34861","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=34861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34862,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34861\/revisions\/34862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}