Enniscorthy lose their grip
Penalty giveaways costly
ENNISCORTHY RELINQUISHED their hold on the Irish Junior Cup when a late Ashbourne penalty from scrum-half Gavin Kennedy ensured that they would lift the crown for the first time with a narrow two-point win in Donnybrook on Saturday.
Enniscorthy’s players and supporters left the pitch scratching their heads and wondering how they could be so good one week and so indifferent the next. They played in fits and starts and yet they could have won the match.
Their scrums and line-outs were generally a disaster. They did, to be fair, have to start without one of their talismen, Ross Barbour, who picked up a calf injury in the warmup. They also started without Killian Lett who was unavailable.
They huffed and puffed in the opening 15 minutes, conceding some very soft penalties, with two of them dispatched by Kennedy, and they also had Paddy Waters sin-binned.
They at last produced some magic on 20 minutes when they turned over the ball and Ivan Poole’s kick to the corner was knocked out over the line by left wing Mitchel O’Meara.
Enniscorthy hooker Davy Murphy threw a fine ball to the back of the line-out which Tomás Stamp knocked down to Paddy Waters who set up a ruck, and after several pick and drives Angelo Todisco got over the line to score the opening try. Ivan Poole kicked the conversion to give the Slaneysiders a 7-6 lead.
The response from Ashbourne was swift, and winger Casey Dunne was allowed to run 30 metres without being tackled. In support he had wing forward James Rooney who touched down in the corner. The conversion was missed.
There was to be another twist in a pulsating opening half. Enniscorthy moved the ball quickly and number 8 Nick Doyle attacked at pace and had Tomás Stamp outside him. The lock forward’s swift pass picked out to Hughie O’Neill who ran a brilliant line to scupper the Ashbourne drift defence, and he touched down for the second try and a 12-11 lead at the interval.
The helter skelter nature of the game continued in the second-half, and Enniscorthy extended their lead.
Greg Jacob picked and drove towards the line and the ball was recycled and eventually found its way to David O’Dwyer whose pass went behind Ivan Jacob who did really well to recover the ball. His pace carried him over the line to score the third try. The conversion was missed by Poole.
The introduction of Joe Carley at half-time did make a difference, although Enniscorthy continued to misfire as their scrum almost totally disintegrated.
They were conceding far too many penalties and they were punished again when Jake Wall scored Ashbourne’s second try but Kennedy missed the conversion.
Ivan Poole and Kennedy exchanged penalties and with ten minutes remaining Enniscorthy held a one-point lead.
Two minutes later Enniscorthy had a glorious opportunity to close out the match.
Ivan Poole put a beautiful ball in behind the Ashbourne defence off his boot and into space.
Evan Lett, who had switched with Arthur Dunne, almost won the race with Casey Dunne who took the ball over the line and the scrum was awarded to Enniscorthy.
Ashbourne drove them back in the scrum and Enniscorthy conceded a penalty which allowed the Meath men to clear their lines. The game was now in the melting pot and after an Ashbourne maul, Greg Jacob was sin-binned for going in high and this was a massive blow.
Enniscorthy were now on the back foot and with the clock ticking down they transgressed once more when going off their feet in a ruck, Kennedy accepted the gift and duly planted the ball between the posts from 35 metres.
There was not enough time for Enniscorthy to come back, and when referee Robert O’Sullivan blew the final whistle it was the Ashbourne players who were celebrating.
Player-coach Joe Bulmer said: ‘Credit to Ashbourne as they deserved to win and I have no idea why we misfired. I know we were missing some players but that is no excuse.
‘We conceded 14 penalties to Ashbourne’s four and therein lies one of our problems today. We will put it behind us because there is still a lot of rugby to be played this season.
‘I want to thank our wonderful supporters who were brilliant and we are sorry we let them down today but we will be back.’
Team: Angelo Todisco, Davy Murphy (James Doyle), Paddy Waters (Tony White), Joe Bulmer (Joe Carley), Tomás Stamp, Tom Ryan, Greg Jacob, Evan Lett, Ivan Poole, Ivan Jacob, Hughie O’Neill (Ronan Doyle), Daniel Pim (capt.), David O’Dwyer, Arthur Dunne. Subs. - Shane Dalton, John Nolan, John Daly.