Skins set for St. Patrick’s weekend clash against championship rivals
City of Derry 10 Enniskillen 59
LAST Saturday saw a return to league action after both teams had been in cup semi-finals the previous week – City of Derry and Skins reaching the Ulster Junior Cup and Towns Cup finals respectively. A large crowd of Enniskillen supporters travelled to Derry last Saturday to take on the home side in a must-win game for Skins. While Enniskillen had shown a remarkable consistency across the 15 previous league games, the suspicion was that City of Derry were preparing to spoil the party, in the continuing absence of George Foster and Henry Keys.
Skins got off to a dream start when Derry failed to deal with the kick off and Keenan snatched the ball on the 22 and surged to within feet of the line. From the ruck, James Carleton powered over. Eddie Keys converted. Skins then had to withstand a period of pressure from Derry whose big forwards carried well.
After 10 minutes, Skins were penalised and Derry opened their scoring with a penalty. It was only a temporary blip as Enniskillen managed to regain possession from the kick off and moved the ball at pace first right and then left to Ben Mclaren who showed a fine turn of speed and then delivered a scoring pass to James Ferguson, who dotted down beside the posts. Keys added the two points with the conversion, to leave the score at 14-3 to the visitors.
From the restart and for the next 15 minutes, the Enniskillen forwards and backs nullified any Derry attacking threat with good line speed and accurate targeting of the ball carrier who was frequently isolated.
From a penalty turnover on 25 minutes, Skins kicked to touch and mauled. Angus Keys sheared off to cross for their third try. This time the conversion was carried wide by the strong cross-field wind.
With their set pieces rock solid, the visitors either attacked the Derry ball carrier or moved their own ball with pace, pulling the home defence to the left and then the right.the decision-making was excellent as was the interpassing and offloading between players.
From these passages of play, two further tries were added by half time, both finished by Ben Mclaren in the left corner, when the ball was spun wide after forward drives in the middle had tied up the Derry defenders, to leave the half-time score 31-3, with one of the tries converted.
From the restart, the pace of the visitors’ play did not slacken. From a lineout overthrow by Derry, just outside the Skins’ 22, Mclaren scooped up the ball and made a 50m break. Neil Rutledge then carried almost to the line before the ball was whipped wide to Niall Keenan on the left-hand touchline to run in. Unfortunately, the pass was deemed to be forward. From Derry’s clearance Skins ran it back and were soon near the try line again, from where Rutledge took a short pass from the ruck to carry three men over the line with him.
Keys converted to leave it 38-3 to the visitors.on 55 minutes Ferguson scored a really good individual try, combining speed and craft.
From a lineout just outside their 22, on the right-hand side, Skins mauled to the 10m line, then moved the ball swiftly to the left wing, where Ferguson had replaced Mclaren, Hill having come into the centre. Ferguson, showing pace and craft, cut inside and beat several defenders to run in from the halfway line to score under the posts and leave an easy kick for Keys.
Derry kept playing and it would be the home side that scored next, with a converted try in the right corner, to make it 45-10.The pace did not let up and from a Derry kick, Skins moved up the field with good interpassing, stretching the Derry defence one way and then the other, culminating in a ruck under the posts, from where Matty Dane capped a very good performance by throwing a dummy and burrowing over the line. The two points were added.
Although the game was blown up slightly early, there was still time for one more score. Following a high tackle on Carleton, Skins kicked the penalty to the corner. Carleton had recovered sufficiently to win the lineout and from the subsequent maul, Oisin Timoney crashed over. Keys converted to bring the game to a close, with Skins convincing 59-10 winners.
This was a performance which must have given the players and coaches a lot of satisfaction because much of what they worked on in training was carried into the match performance. This Saturday, one of the biggest matches in the club’s history takes place at home to Ballyclare.
With both teams having only lost one game, whoever wins is likely to take the title and move on to the qualifiers for the All-ireland leagues.
Skins’ only defeats this season have both been to Ballyclare, so the Antrim team will be the favourites – but the Enniskillen boys appear to be peaking at just the right time. Kick-off is at 2.30pm at Mullaghmeen.