Sligo Ladies 7 Enniskillen Ladies 17

Enniskillen Ladies booked their place in the semi-final of the AIL Junior Cup with victory over Sligo in a wet and windy Strandhill on Sunday.

The Skins Ladies had been on an unfortunate run of away fixtures and they were keen that this was not to be their last game of their inaugural season.

The pitch at Sligo would be a leveller as it was very wet and sticky and this certainly did happen but it wasn’t going to stand in the way of the Skins first meaningful possession.

Brilliant forward carries by Sophie Barrett, Katie Elliott, Ashling Maguire and Tammy Miller made huge ground up the middle of the pitch and despite the howling wind and driving rain, the quick ball spun wide by Ellie May Maguire to Cora Balfour got the girls wide on the left. Zara Flack was the final recipient of the passes and she used her great footwork and speed to ghost around the Sligo wide defender and in for a well deserved opening score. The very tough conversion was just missed by Cora Balfour but Skins had an early 0-5 advantage.

For large parts of the first half, the game was played in the middle sections of the pitch where each set of forwards tried to carry ball and make a decisive break but a combination of the Skins superb tackling and the wet and slippery conditions made that very difficult.

The Skins tackling was superb with Tammy Miller, Cora Balfour and Farrah Cartin McCloskey all stealing balls from their opposition on the ground. The Sligo ladies did have a sustained period of pressure in the last five minutes of the first half in the Skins 22, but this was again thwarted short of the line by some superb tackling and defensive work by the entire Skins squad as it remained 0-5 at half time.

The girls were encouraged to know that the wind may have been worth 10 points to Sligo in the first half, but the fact that the Skins Ladies had in fact held the lead was to their huge credit.

They played 80 per cent of the second-half in the Sligo territory, and another set of great forward carries involving Katie Elliott, Rebecca Beacom and Kelly Beacom resulted in a fast play of the ball, popped to Sophie Barrett to crash over for a score. The conversion went just wide as Skins moved into 0-10 lead.

Skins really had the bit between their teeth at this point, and it looked like they had sapped the energy from the Sligo attack. Another great phase of play seen the ball passed away onto the left wing were yet again Zara Flack was on hand to go through the Sligo defence and score. The conversion was added this time by Cora Balfour to make it 0-17.

With only a few minutes left on the clock the excellent Sligo centre hacked the ball forward and regained her few dribble kicks to get to the Skins line and score.

It was a reward for the endeavour that the Connacht ladies had shown but with the final whistle immediately after it, it was to be the Skins progressing to the AIL Junior Cup Semi Final on a final score of 7-17.

Enniskillen have been handed a home tie against either Queens RFC or MU Barnhall RFC at Mullaghmeen in the semi-final on Sunday April 2 at 1.00pm.

 

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