ENNISCORTHY RUGBY

Enniscorthy 22, Tullow 12: The Enniscorthy Under-16s are through to the South-East final for the second year in a row, having come through a close encounter against Tullow with ten points to spare.

Following the completion of the group stages, Enniscorthy secured a home semi-final against Tullow. The Slaneysiders knew this was going to be a tough encounter, given that Enniscorthy defeated Tullow earlier in the year but had been behind for most of that match.

They were also missing a few of the key influential players who were not available due to Christmas commitments.

The good weather and holidays drew a large crowd to the Ross Road for the fixture.

The home side did not want to give the opposition a head start like the previous game, and good defending from the front row of Josh Murphy, Conor Murphy and Ryan Collier kept the Tullow team out of scoring range when under an initial bout of pressure.

Following an infringement at the breakdown, Enniscorthy started mak- ing inroads with some good carries by Joshua Murphy and David Bolger into the Tullow territory.

A lovely crossfield kick from Conal Kervick released Cillian Doyle, and from the re-cycled ball James Doyle crashed over from the first score.

However, for the next ten minutes the Co. Carlow side began to dominate up front and were dangerous out wide with some clever switch plays.

Midway through the half, Enniscorthy were sucked into a ruck and a quick ball released the Tullow number 10, Tadhg Walsh, who touched down under the posts. Tadhg scored the resulting conversion and Tullow were 7-5 to the good.

From the Enniscorthy kick-off, Chris O’Leary won the ball superbly and almost made it to the Tullow ’22 before being hauled down. However, Tullow won a penalty for an offside discretion from the next phase of play.

The Carlow side were playing with confidence and only some excellent defensive work by Seán Kelly and Matt Kinnaird saved the Slaneysiders from conceding more scores.

Tullow did miss a penalty during this period which proved crucial as the introduction of Evan O’Connor gave improved impetus to the forward play of the home team.

With time almost up, an impressive passage of play with multiple pickand-go moves ended with Aaron Doyle crossing the line from close range. Kervick added the extras and Enniscorthy went into half-time with a slim 12-7 advantage.

The home side began to empty their bench at the start of the second-half, with both Shawn Leacy and the energetic Wayne Sutton providing some additional firepower up front.

Tullow had only one substitute on their bench and, as they tired, Enniscorthy began to dominate proceedings around the park.

The line-outs were particularly impressive and Enniscorthy went through repeated phases of possession.

Ore Lasisi was especially effective at both winning control at the rucks and constantly breaking the gain line with some powerful runs.

The pressure eventually paid off with James Doyle making a clean break to score in the corner. A few minutes later, Stefen San Augustin picked up a loose ball from the opposition ’22 and dotted down to extend the lead to 22-7.

Tullow came back strong for the final quarter and Ciarán Caffrey scored their second try after a period of sustained pressure despite some last-gasp tackling from Evan Jacob.

In order to solidify their defences, Enniscorthy were able to bring in Ger Kennedy and Mark Ennis and they controlled matters for the last ten minutes, eventually running out 22-12 victors.