Poole leads charge
Enniscorthy advance to cup last eight
ENNISCORTHY LONGFORD 34 20
IT TOOK Enniscorthy a while to settle in this Provincial Towns Cup second round encounter with Division 1B side Longford, who arrived to the Ross Road on Sunday hell bent on causing an upset.
Enniscorthy started without Nick Doyle who was assisting the Wexford Senior footballers in Innovate Wexford Park.
There was 15 minutes on the clock when the home team eventually breached the Longford defence, with man of the match Ivan Poole scoring the first try after an excellent work by the forwards. He also added the conversion for a 7-0 lead.
Three minutes later full-back Richard Dunne took a pass on the run from out-half Ross Barbour and released David O’Dwyer to cross over the line in the corner. The conversion was missed.
Longford didn’t lie down to be fair and they responded with two well-worked penalty kicks from Jimmy Connolly.
With five minutes to half-time, Richard Dunne broke free down the right and, just as he was about to be tackled, he put in a little grubber kick straight through into the hands of Ivan Jacob who scored the third try to extend the lead to 17-6 at half-time.
If the home team thought they were home and hosed at the interval, Longford had different ideas as they put serious pressure on the Enniscorthy defence.
After a number of pick and drives, their replacement forward Paul Gallogly scored and Connolly added the conversion to put just four points between the teams.
It was a warning sign for the home team but they responded brilliantly and moved up a gear. They introduced Joe Carley and John Daly and they exerted a lot of forwarded pressure on the Longford scrum.
That pressure told when they were rewarded with a penalty try to extend the lead.
They certainly looked comfortable after that try, and Ivan Poole added a penalty to extend the lead to 27-13.
Enniscorthy scored a further try when Tom Ryan turned over a ball on halfway and Ivan Poole did the rest to score his second try and the team’s fifth touchdown. Poole kicked the conversion.
The visitors did score a consolation try at the end when centre Colm Glynn found some space to touch down, but it was too little, too late.
Paddy Waters, Glen Deacon, Joe Carley and Tom Ryan were the pick of the forwards, whilst the outstanding Ivan Poole was man of the match.
Richard and Arthur Dunne were not far behind.
Enniscorthy resume league action next weekend as they play Monkstown at 3 p.m. They have been drawn at home to Clondalkin in the cup quarter-final, to be played on Sunday, March 18.
Team: Angelo Todisco, David Murphy, Paddy Waters, Glen Deacon, Tomás Stamp, Tom Ryan, Jim White, Timmy Morrissey, Arthur Dunne, Ross Barbour, David O’Dwyer, Ivan Poole (capt.), Daniel Pim, Ivan Jacob, Richard Dunne. Replacements (all used): Hughie O’Neill, Tom Farrar, Tony White, Joe Carley. John Daly.