Limavady 19 Enniskillen 32

Enniskillen 1st XV picked up their first league victory of the season as they secured a bonus point win last weekend in their third league fixture of the season away to Limavady.

The recently promoted Limavady were an unknown entity to Skins and started the contest well but Skins eventually got into their stride and finished the contest with a 19-32 win.

The home side started well with a few big forwards carrying ball and causing trouble for the young Skins side, breaking through tackles and leaving the defence back tracking, leading to an early score after defending their own line for some time.

Lack of accuracy

Another score came for the home side shortly afterwards in similar fashion.

Skins attacked well and showed they had the potential to cause serious trouble for the opposition but turnovers and lack of accuracy at the set piece had them back in defence once again and scrambling, conceding another score to go a fairly soft 0-12 down after 25 minutes.

However, Skins settled themselves and showed their attacking ability.

Eddie Keys at out half showed some slick passing to hit Hylton at thirteen who cut through the Limavady defence to bring play into their half.

Skins had the home side pinned in their half now and built pressure with Daire Hill crossing the line to trail by just a score at half time.

Enniskillen looked more comfortable now but still made life difficult for themselves with errors at the breakdown and giving Limavady a little too much time in attack.

The attack came into it’s ascendancy though as the forwards linked seamlessly with the backline, Keenan working hard around the corner with Neil Rutledge and returning brother Jack who made life difficult for the defence.

After sustained pressure in the Limavady half the ball found Mark O’Shea who crossed for the second score.

Thankfully after a bit of back and forth from the referee the Skins scrum was setting the tone well against a big opposition forward pack - the front row of Breen, Keenan and Graham with an average age of 20 years old looking dominant against seasoned opposition.

Dominant Skins pack

After another foray into the Limavady half Skins continued to build pressure on the line and this time a series of scrums ended with a penalty try awarded to the dominant Skins pack, leading now 12-19.

To their credit the home side came back fighting and worked their way in behind the Skins defence with some well worked kicks and a solid line out. Eventually using their territory well to cross the line again, levelling at 19-19.

The final quarter was all Enniskillen, however, as the home side tired and began to leak penalties.

Eddie Keys hit two from the tee to bring Skins 19-25 in the lead.

After another period of sustained pressure the forwards battered the line with Carleton and Timoney putting in a huge shift before Niall Keenan crossed the line to top off a man of the match performance. Final score of 19-32.

Encouraging performance

It was an encouraging performance from a young side to recover from a poor start where they undoubtedly let Limavady get their tails up, to then finish so convincingly, but they will need an 80 minute performance in future if they are to turn over some of the stronger opposition in this league.

This Saturday they travel to Carrickfergus, a team who haven’t started the league well but have always been a hard team to turn over on their home patch.