Ladies top pool with deserved win
Editorial Department • Published 2 Feb 2012 13:00
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Enniskillen Ladies 17; Cavan Ladies 0;
With the heavy rain of Saturday night, the Enniskillen girls took to an extremely muddy Mullaghmeen in miserable conditions, for a match which was to be a battle of the forwards at the breakdown and turned out to be the only match to be played, of the four due to be played, in the Ulster Cup this weekend.
'Skins started brightly, kicking the match off, they pressurised the Cavan receiver, and played the first 10 minutes of rugby in the Cavan '22'. Once again the 'Skins pack showed their dominance in the scrum, winning a number against the head and the under-19 rule allowing only a metre and a half drive once again working only in the oppositions favour. After a number of forward phases, scrum-half Noreen Nethercott once again utilised her quick reactions to pick up a loose ball, run around the Cavan defence and cross the line for an unconverted score to put Enniskillen 5-0 ahead. Receiving ball from the kick off, again 'Skins worked play back into the Cavan half, with strong running from Ashling Maguire and Shauna McMorrow. A pick up at the back of a scrum on the '22' saw Gemma McCutcheon race to the line for 'Skins second try. Caoimhe Morris converted to put 'Skins 12-0 ahead. The atrocious conditions caused many more handling errors which led to the rest of the game being very broken and disjointed.
The majority of the second half was scrappy play between the forwards, with hard yards being made by Collette McMorrow, Alice Swan and Clare Brogan. A great spell of hard rugby from the Cavan pack after kick off saw them camped in the 'Skins half, until a turn over ball made its way to 'Skins out-half, Morris who used her vision to step the Cavan defensive line and run from just outside her own '22', run a lovely change of direction to shrug off the Cavan full back coming across pitch at speed, to within 10 metres of the Cavan try line, where the full back managed to catch up for a try-saving tackle. From the breakdown, 'Skins shipped the ball wide and Brenda Brogan did dive over the line but however the referee blew very late for an earlier knock on. The 'Skins pack managed another win against the head in the resulting scrum but quickly lost possession again with yet another knock on.
The best passage of play came in the last 10 minutes of the game when 'Skins finally seemed to come to terms with the worsening conditions and began to play hard-hitting forward rugby. With Cavan unable to escape the mud bath that was their '22', despite managing to turn over ball on a couple of occasions, 'Skins won possession back. Great ball retention at the breakdown allowed a near constant flow of forwards crashing up ball, with pick and going from the base of the ruck and hard running off Nethercott and Morris as well as centres Sarah Teague and Brenda Brogan crashing it up, enough space was eventually made for Brogan to crash over the line on the final play of the game for an unconverted try to leave the scoreline at 17-0.
It was not pretty rugby by any means but the coaches and the team were pleased to take the hard earned four points which leaves them topping the "Ulster West" pool after all pool matches, rewarding them with a home fixture against the bottom team of the "Ulster East" pool for round four of the Ulster Cup next weekend.
With the points from all four rounds being tallied and the top two teams overall playing for the coveted Rosie Stewart Memorial Cup, a win next weekend is guaranteed to put 'Skins in the final. All support is much appreciated and the match will kick off at 1pm next Sunday.
Opponents are still to be verified as both matches in the East pool being postponed until mid week.
Anyone interested giving rugby a go can contact Helen on 07842776315.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 02 Feb 12
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