On a beautiful early autumn day Enniskillen’s 1st XV began their competitive season with a disappointing
\ndefeat at home to Limavady.
\n‘Skins kicked off with high hopes of advancing to the next round and after a period of play in the visitors’ half
\nthey were awarded a penalty but failed to convert, something they were to regret, when two minutes later
\nLimavady took the lead through a Greg Jordan penalty.
\nThroughout the early stages both packs tested each other out but ‘Skins were unable to set up good
\npositions in the visitors’ half mainly due to good work at the breakdown by the Limavady openside flanker
\nand Number 8 and by good spoiling at the base of the scrum by the scrum half.
\nAfter fourteen minutes Limavady kicked a penalty to touch and launched a forward drive from the resulting
\nlineout leading to a John McCollum try, which was converted for a ten point lead.
\n‘Skins did make some forays into the Limavady half but on two occasions were unable to control their own
\nlineout ball and the chances were lost. Then on eighteen minutes Limavady went further ahead when their
\nbacks, with good inter-passing, out-flanked the Enniskillen defence allowing their right winger score an
\nunconverted try in the corner.
\n‘Skins eventually got on the scoresheet after 25 minutes with a penalty from Zac Charleton but were left to
\nrue three other penalty misses before half-time.
\n‘Skins needed to start the second half well but it was Limavady, and their outhalf in particular, who controlled
\nthe game. Too often ‘Skins kicked away possession to the visitors back three and Jordan kept ‘Skins pinned
\nin their own half with a series of accurate punts.
\nEnniskillen were getting good set-piece ball, with scrum getting the upper hand and a solid lineout, and had
\nmore than enough possession, but as hard as Jamie Johnston and Robbie Murray tried they lacked support
\nand the Limavady backline showed good linespeed and barely missed a tackle throughout.
\nWith an hour gone ‘Skins were guilty of giving away possession and the visitors kicked into the corner, from
\nwhere they won possession and an orthodox back move allowed their winger, Alan Robinson, to cross in the
\ncorner to add another unconverted try to effectively end the contest.
\nDespite the overwhelming deficit, ‘Skins did produce a strong finish and dominated the closing ten minutes
\nand shortly before the end Alan Wilkinson crashed over beside the posts for a converted try, after a fine
\nforward drive.
\n‘Skins can have no complaints as the better side won on the day. It takes time for players to settle in and
\nEnniskillen will surely improve. Ball-retention is essential and increased mobility about the park will ensure a
\nmuch more competitive game next Saturday for the visit of Carrick and the start of the league campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a beautiful early autumn day Enniskillen’s 1st XV began their competitive season with a disappointing defeat at home to Limavady. ‘Skins kicked off with high hopes of advancing to the next round and after a period of play in the visitors’ half they were awarded a penalty but failed to convert, something they were […]<\/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-54431","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\/54431","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=54431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54433,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54431\/revisions\/54433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}