Skins secure another win ahead of encounter with league leaders
Enniskillen Women 57 City of Derry Women 12
ENNISKILLEN Womens’ impressive start to the Premiership season continued on Saturday night as they made it five wins out of six games with an emphatic 57-12 victory over City of Derry.
The game, played under the lights at Mullaghmeen, brought huge anticipation as the Skins side looked to keep pushing up the Premiership table in their pursuit of league leaders, Malone.
However, an in-form City of Derry arrived full of confidence after their previous weekend’s victory over Dungannon, which was their third win of the campaign.
It was a beautiful evening for running rugby and that is exactly what the two teams provided for the large crowd.
It looked very positive for the Skins Ladies when one minute after the kick-off they received the ball back from the Derry defence, and lovely quick hands from Lucy Thompson fed Zara Flack on the wing, who made 20 yards with her skilful running.
She offloaded to a marauding Kelly Beacom, who crashed into the 22 where she made the final offload to Sophie Barrett, who went over the try line from 10 metres out under the posts. The try was converted by Farrah Cartin Mccloskey to give Skins an early 7-0 advantage.
However, the Derry ladies were not here to make up the numbers and they set about a sustained period of forward carries that resulted in a try from five metres out crashing over the line. The resultant onversion was missed, but they closed the score to 7-5.
Derry seemed very uncomfortable playing out from the restart kick off, and it was another nervous clearance kick that allowed Skins Ladies to burst forward with some excellent carries in the forward pack, finished off by a lovely run by Cartin Mccloskey to score under the posts.
With the conversion successful, Enniskillen moved into a 14-5 lead.
However, Derry were not willing to back down and they scored a second almost identical try which this time was converted to leave the score at 14-12.
This seemed to spark the Skins Ladies into life and a great scrum resulted in hands wide to winger Zara Flack to score in the corner, and a wonderful conversion from wide by Cartin Mccloskey made it 21-12.
The last score of the half was again a Skins one.
Reliable
Strong carries from the industrious Ashling Maguire and Moya Hill left Nadine Hunter just a yard short, but the reliable Sophie Barrett was there to finish off and although the conversion was missed, the home side went in at the break with a commanding 26-12 lead.
The second half seemed to start with the Skins girls in a whole different mindset and they went on to play some of their best rugby of the season so far.
It started with a fantastic carry, again by Moya and Kelly, but finished superbly on the wing by Zara Flack. Another superb conversion by Cartin Mccloskey followed to stretch the lead out further, 33-12.
The backs were now flying through the Derry defence and this created a lovely gap for Rebecca Beacom to show her speed and crash over the line. Again the conversion was added to make it 40-12.
Zara Flack was really enjoying herself on the left wing and scored her hat trick try after Katie Elliott blasted through and offloaded to Lucy Thompson. Once more, Cartin Mccloskey did the honours with the conversion to extend the lead.
The aforementioned Lucy Thompson marked her return from injury with a smart try after another storming carry by Captain India Daley, and a further injection of pace by full back Sophie Meeke as Enniskillen moved into a 52-12 advantage.
The last score was among the best tries of the game with a strong run by Daley, followed by a lovely offload to Ellie-may Maguire, then out to Thompson who fed Flack to use her pace again to score out wide. This was her fourth try of the game.
India Daley was named as Player of the Match.
The final score on the day was 57-12 to Enniskillen Ladies, but the scoreline doesn’t tell the immense effort and tackles that the travelling Derry Ladies made.
It was a true battle until half time. After the break, however, the Skins Ladies simply played their best rugby of their season so far.
It was a great watch and a wonderful Saturday evening fixture under the lights.
The next game for the Skins Ladies is Saturday, November 19, when they host table toppers and last year’s All-ireland League team, Malone RFC, at 5pm at Mullaghmeen.
This is a top of the table clash as with a Skins win they can move into second place.
DERRYLIN footballer Corey Smith was a late substitute for Northern Ireland U18s as they took on Austria on Tuesday evening.
Played at Stangmore Park, the home of Dungannon Swifts ,it was the Austrians who ran out 2-0 winners in the first of two friendlies between the sides this week.
Stefan Kordic and Zeteny Jano hit goals in the last 15 minutes for the Austrians with Smith coming on to the field in the 90th minute for
Gerard Lyttle’s side.
Smith, who plays for Dungannon Swifts, will be hoping for more game time when the sides meet again at Stangmore Park this evening (Thursday) at 6pm.
Smith was also vice-captain of the Fermanagh Premier side which competed at the Supercupni in July winning the Globe competition by beating Co. Tyrone in the final.
He was also a member of the Fermanagh U17 football panel last year. 119 crews will take part in the second Erne Fours Head of the River this Saturday, November 19.
There are two Heads, the Women’s Head takes place at 11am and the Men’s Head starts at 2pm. The crews will race the 6km course from up past Killyhevlin straight back to the Northridge Boathouse in 10 second intervals.
There are 57 crews in the Women’s Race including eight crews from Enniskillen Royal Boat Club along with crews from Trinity Ladies Boat Club, Queen’s University and University of Galway Boat Club among the entry.
The Men’s race has 62 crews, nine from ERBC along with crews from Trinity Boat Club including Luke Paton who rowed with ERBC last season, UCD, Queen’s University, St Joseph’s Boat Club, Neptune Rowing Club, Castleconnell Boat Club and Commercial Rowing Club
Derek Holland, Head of Rowing at Enniskillen Royal Boat Club said: “There is a very strong entry for both the Women’s and the Men’s races and it will be interesting to see how our crews perform on Saturday against strong competition.
“It is always great to see crews from all over Ireland travelling to Enniskillen to race on Lough Erne.
“We introduced a Fours Head of the River last year to go along with our Eights Head which has been held in March every year since 1957 apart from a couple of cancellations, most recently due to Covid and we are delighted that it has proven to be just as popular.”
Some of the best vantage points to watch the races are the Killyhevlin Hotel, Broadmeadow at Enniskillen Castle and the Round O.
ERBC CREWS
Women’s Race
Crew No 7 – Women’s Junior Coxless Quad
Crew No 32 – Women’s Junior B Coxed Four
Crew No 35 – Women’s Junior B Coxless Quad A
Crew No 37 – Women’s Junior B Coxless Quad B
Crew No 44 – Women’s Junior 15 Coxed Quad A
Crew No 48 – Women’s
Junior 15 Coxed Quad B
Crew No 50 – Women’s Junior 14 Coxed Quad A
Crew No 52 – Women’s Junior 14 Coxed Quad B Men’s Race
Crew No 107 – Men’s Junior Coxless Quad A
Crew No 110 – Men’s Junior Coxless Quad B
Crew No 143 – Men’s J16 Coxed Four
Crew No 146 – Men’s J16 Coxed Quad
Crew No 151 – Men’s J15 Coxed Quad
Crew No 155 – Men’s J14 Coxed Quad A
Crew No 159 – Men’s J14 Coxed Quad B
Crew No 160 – Men’s Junior Coxless Quad C
Crew No 161 – Men’s Junior Coxless Quad D