On Saturday last Enniskillen’s 2nd XV returned to Crawford Cup action at Mullaghmeen and having
\nsecured a quarter final home draw they fielded with a selection that reflected many forced changes
\nfrom the side that had registered an excellent win over the league leaders, Grosvenor, the previous
\nweek.
\nChris Dickey moved to the out-half berth and with Paddy McCleery, competently performing at
\nscrum half, produced a formidable half-back partnership. Their stewardship of both attack and
\ndefence throughout the game had a major influence on the eventual outcome. Richard O\u2019Callaghan
\nmade a welcome return at full back, effortlessly marshalling the last line of defence throughout,
\nably assisted in defence by Gordon White and Richard Henderson who were faultless for the eighty
\nminutes on the flanks.
\nMichael Law returned from injury to form a formidable centre partnership alongside Paul Burns.
\nUp front Alan Ferguson replaced Johnny Foster in the front row and along side Richard Beatty and
\nAndrew McCrea controlled the set-piece throughout, with skipper Cathal McGarry and Richard
\nWillis provided the power from the second row engine room.
\nAlthough Rainey struggled throughout, with their mounting injury list taking its toll, they never at
\nany stage looked like giving up and deserved credit for competing in every aspect of the game until
\nthe final whistle.
\nConditions were ideal for rugby and with virtually no wind to assist either side Enniskillen received
\nthe opening kick-off and immediately indicated their intent to play an expansive running game
\ndriving deep into the opposition half. Having controlled possession for the opening five minutes
\n‘Skins ran the ball at the stubborn opposition cover, rucking and re-cycling the ball when required.
\nHaving built the phases in the Rainey \u201c22\u201d Andrew Mc Crea broke and drove through the visitors’
\ndefence to touch down in the corner for a well taken try to open the home side\u2019s account.
\nAlthough Rainey did try to take the game to Enniskillen, their efforts were thwarted on every
\noccasion by a well-organised home side defence and it wasn’t long before ‘Skins increased their
\nlead. From a line-out just inside the Rainey half Eddie Roofe took a clean catch and the ball was
\nimmediately gathered by the Enniskillen pack. With some disciplined forward support play the
\nforwards managed to set up several phases to bring the play deep into the visitors’ \u201c22\u201d and from a
\nruck the ball was gathered by Fergal Nolan who outflanked the defensive cover and sprinted from
\ntwenty metres out to register the second try of the afternoon.
\nShortly after Rainey were dispossessed in midfield and the ball was gathered by Dickey who
\nreleased the eager Enniskillen back line. Henderson, playing in an unfamiliar position on the wing,
\ntook full advantage of the stretched opposition cover to touch down between the posts with
\nMcCleery adding the subsequent conversion.
\nAny thoughts of the game being prematurely over were quickly dispelled when a concerted effort
\nfrom Rainey to re-establish some parity resulted in several meaningful drives towards the
\nEnniskillen line where their out-half, who threatened throughout, eventually evaded the ‘Skins’
\ndefence for the visitor\u2019s opening, and only, score of the afternoon.
\nThis reinvigorated the home side, who from the restart began running at the opposition from every
\nopportunity, with the back row of Roofe, Nolan and Ross Duncan excelling in the loose
\nthroughout. The sustained period of pressure again paid off when just after the half hour mark Ross
\nDuncan, making one of his familiar drives from the base of a ruck, off-loaded to Henderson who in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Saturday last Enniskillen’s 2nd XV returned to Crawford Cup action at Mullaghmeen and having secured a quarter final home draw they fielded with a selection that reflected many forced changes from the side that had registered an excellent win over the league leaders, Grosvenor, the previous week. Chris Dickey moved to the out-half berth […]<\/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":[4719,6475,5519,17237,3959],"class_list":["post-42623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enniskillen","tag-club","tag-crawford","tag-cup","tag-enniskillen","tag-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42623","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=42623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42624,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42623\/revisions\/42624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}