Enniskillen 1st XV rounded off their league campaign last Wednesday night as they secured a fourth place finish with a 31-26 win over Grosvenor at Mullaghmeen.

With the side in transition, coach Stevie Welsh had targeted a top four finish and he was delighted to achieve that.

“It was a tough league, the top two ran away with it and Ballyclare were very strong and they have improved so to finish in the top four was great.

“We lost five or six of our more experienced players this year and seven or eight of our team are only 18 or 19 so we are very happy with that,” he said, although he had wanted a better run in some of the cup competitions.

“We would be a bit disappointed that we didn’t have a bit of a cup run, that quarter-final loss to Dromore in Towns’ Cup was probably the one game this year when we didn’t show up.”

The experience gained though by the younger players will only stand to them going into next year, believes Welsh.

“Those young boys are so important to us and they are actually near enough our best players.

“They have been getting experience and getting to know what to do when games are getting tight and that and they will get that experience of how to grind out a win.

“It is a big step up for them coming out of school. Some of them left school and played two games and then everything was shut down with Covid so it is definitely a learning curve for them,” he said.

Welsh is already putting plans in place for next season with his eye on adding to the squad.

“We are looking forward to next year because those young boys will be a year older next year and we’ll also look to add a couple more into the squad.

“We have Rhys Barrett, a big second row, coming back from university, he will be a great addition for us. He is a great ball player and a great trainer so it will be great to have him back.

“We also have a couple of other wee things we haven’t finalised yet but there is a couple of players were looking to bring in and then we have a good bunch of boys coming out of school and out of the U18s and they will play academy games for the next month or two to get them up to speed and hopefully you will see a few of them as we move along through next season,” he added, while a couple of injured players will also return to bolster the squad.

“We had Stevie Balfour and Mattie Beatty who both had season long injuries at the start of the season and had to have operations and they will be like two new players to us so we are looking forward to getting them back,” he said.