Enniscorthy edge derby
ENNISCORTHY 26 GOREY 25
ENNISCORTHY HOSTED local rivals Gorey at Ross Road on Sunday in a derby match which had huge significance for both teams. GOREY, searching for survival in Leinster League Division 1A, struck first with a penalty after five minutes by Steve Horan.
Enniscorthy hit back with a try under the posts by Timmy Morrissey, converted by captain Ivan Poole, after a sustained period of scrum pressure for the home team.
This spurred Gorey on and, after repeated maul pressure and Enniscorthy infringements, outhalf Marty Swart gathered a low pop pass to slide over and Horan converted to lead 11-7.
A further converted try by the Gorey pack left the score at halftime 18-7 to the away side.
Enniscorthy’s pack upped the tempo after the re-start and, after Gorey strayed offside, Nick Doyle put the penalty into touch on the five-metre line. From the line-out maul, substitute Tony White broke off and scored in the corner to reduce the Gorey lead to 18-12.
Now both defences put in strong performances and reduced the scoring chances to a minimum until the Gorey wing-forward was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-down, halting a promising Enniscorthy attack.
From the resulting penalty lineout, the Enniscorthy pack in unison constructed a perfect rolling maul which marched to the Gorey line where tireless open side Tom Ryan touched down, and Poole converted to give his team a onepoint lead (19-18).
The game was there to be won and Gorey responded with a good converted team try to edge back into a 25-19 lead with minutes remaining, but Enniscorthy refused to give up and pressured the Gorey backs to move back into opposition territory.
From a Gorey line-out, Stamp reached up to steal the throw and scrum-half Arthur Dunne’s lightning pass allowed Ivan Poole to race through from 30 metres, only to be hauled down inches from the line.
He popped the perfect ball to super-sub Killian Lett who acrobatically touched down one-handed between the posts to give Poole an easy conversion to lead 2625, and importantly the four-try bonus point.
These local derbies are never straightforward, and so it proved again as Gorey had one last chance with a penalty in the dying seconds, but the ball slipped to the left of the posts and the final whistle sounded to the relief of the large Enniscorthy support.
Enniscorthy now lie in second place, three points behind Ashbourne at the top of the table, with just one more league game remaining.
Enniscorthy are away to D.L.S.P. while Ashbourne are home to bottom side Monkstown. It would now take a minor miracle for Enniscorthy to win the league.
Enniscorthy: Angelo Todisco, Davy Murphy, Paddy Waters, Tomás Stamp, Joseph Bulmer, Nick Doyle, Tom Ryan, Timmy Morrissey, Arthur Dunne, Ross Barbour, David O’Dwyer, Ivan Poole, Daniel Pim, Ivan Jacob, Richard Dunne. Subs. - Tom Farrar, Anthony White, John Daly, Jim White, Killian Lett.
Gorey: Dylan Gregan, Barry O’Connor, Darragh Bellanova, Tom Jameson, Stephen Gardiner (capt.), Killian Breen, Eddie Horan, Mark Whelan, Stephen Horan, Marty Swart (two tries), Andrew Walsh, James Nolan, Eoin Walsh, David Shannon, Stephen Duke, Philip Horan, Ciarán Allen, Stanley Hadden, Gareth Bater, Paul O’Connor (try).