Clinical visitors end Skins tilt

Enniskillen 1st XV may have bowed out of their debut All-Ireland Junior Cup campaign at the last eight stage but it was certainly not without a fight.
Indeed, the Skins performance will stand them in good side especially with some tight league games coming up before Christmas.
A powerful Newcastle West side, who had already seen off the previous year’s finalists Enniscorthy, started the game at a rapid pace leaving Enniskillen to play catch-up yet again, then settling into the fixture and showing some remarkable perseverance to come back into the game. 
Skins captain Ryan Cathcart reflected on the positive elements of the defeat.
“The instant reaction from all of the lads was disappointment,” he revealed before adding. “I think we all felt if we cut out a lot of errors we actually had the beating of that side, but they were so clinical and that made the difference overall. But, looking at the game in hindsight you see the positives and it was a great performance against an excellent side. Our main goal was upping our physicality and bringing some desire back into our game from previous weeks and we did that in excess, the forwards actually dominated the big Newcastle pack for much of the game and the backs constantly shut down a very quick back line who had a lot of possession.”
Newcastle West moved the ball well from the kick off and their back line proved to be quick and hard running, finding holes in the Skins defence and gaining good yards. 
The visitors’ line out was also solid and gave them a good base to attack from, keeping Skins pinned in their half. Frustration under pressure led to an early penalty and Newcastle took the lead 0-3.
Newcastle continued to dominate territory and work their way inside the Enniskillen 22. A solid Skins scrum kept them at bay for a while and good work at the line out from Richie Beatty neutralised attempts from the visitors to set up the maul. 
Eventually, however, the Newcastle second row crossed for an early try following a rampant maul from 10 metres out which went unconverted to make it 0-8.
Skins made some ground into the opposition half now and the forwards put some devastating carries together through the back row of Holden, Johnston and Gormley to get a foothold in the game, forcing a penalty from the visitors and Lendrum putting the first points on the board to trail 3-8.
Newcastle responded aggressively from the restart and again pinned Enniskillen in their own half and the home side struggled to clear their lines despite repeated attempts at an exit. Soon a break in midfield yielded a try for the Newcastle backs, converted to go 3-15 up shortly before half time.
The second half started much more positively for Skins. The back line found some space out wide to bring play into the Newcastle half and the pack continued to find yards through short range pick and go’s, Grayson Donnelly and Gavin Parke in the second row putting in an industrious shift. Opting for the scrum off a penalty, a big drive was followed by repeated pick and go’s before simple hands through the backs found James Ferguson on the right wing who crossed in the corner, unconverted bringing the score to 8-15.
Skins defence was much improved and Ricky Lee off the bench made some massive hits to restrain the big Limerick pack. Newcastle were clinical, however, continuing to play at a rapid pace and, despite their best efforts, Skins struggled to reorganise the defensive line to deal with visitors. Repeated penalties came from Skins now and Newcastle extended their lead to 8-18.
Pinned in their half once again from the restart it wasn’t long before Newcastle again crossed the line and went 8-25 up. The home side refused to lie down and responded well from the restart, playing some of their best rugby as the forwards and backs linked well together to gain ground. Nick Finlay put a lot of energy into the performance off the bench at out half as did Jamie Kelly in the forwards. After some concentrated carries approaching the Newcastle try line Gavin Parke crossed for a score to go to 13-25.
From the restart another penalty came Newcastle’s way and the side slotted the attempt once again to go 13-28 for full time, a harsh result for an entertaining contest.