Enniskillen U18 Girls 45 North West U18s Girls 5

Enniskillen U-18 Girls secured their place in the Ulster U-18 Girls Cup final with victory over a North West amalgamated side of City of Derry/Letterkenny/FinnValley/Inishowen.

The game started strongly for the Skins girls as they cut great lines with Chloe Moore and Victoria Murray running deep into the NW team’s half only to be stopped by a knock-on.

The resulting contested scrum was unusually won against the head by the industrious hooker Lauren Kelly.

This allowed Chloe Moore to let Anna Wilson loose. Anna was stopped 10 metres short of the line but scrum half Aimee Ross was on hand in support to call for the offload and drive over the line for the first score to make it 5-0.

The next try was straight off the training ground with Ross again feeding the ever more confident out-half Olivia Beavis. The ball was then moved through Leah Irwin to full back Niamh Johnston, who hit the line at full speed and went in under the posts. With the conversion added it left the score 12-0.

If that try was all backs, then the next one was definitely forward dominated.

Amanda Farrell and Eve Courtney (who had both tormented the NW girls all day) fed Keeva Corry (who played a fantastic game coming back from a broken hand) and her nicely timed pass put Abi Brock through the middle and she ran in the try from the 22 metre line.

The conversion was added again by Leah Irwin as Skins increased their lead to 19-0.

The direction of traffic all seemed to be the one way against the NW girls as Skins really started to purr.

This time, it was Olivia Black that made the hard yards before Katherine Armstrong and Victoria Benson used lovely soft hand to release the flying Scarlett Keys. Keys made it well into the NW 22, but when she was caught, Anna Wilson was on her shoulder to run in the try which was again converted.

The final two plays of the first half were examples of this group’s progression.

The first try was finished off superbly by Amanda Farrell after going through five or six hands and the last play of the half came straight from the restart after Zoe Elliott caught it and passed to Niamh Johnston, who ran in from the halfway line to leave it 38-0 at half time.

The second half started off with some pressure from the NW girls and this paid off with an attacking scrum on the 22 of the Skins territory.

The No. 6 picked up from the base of the scrum and offloaded beautifully to the very impressive NW scrum half, who went outside the Skins defence to score out wide.

This really woke up the home team and straight from a super restart catch Jessica McCurry fed the ever improving Amy Taylor who passed out to the wing where Aine Reilly cut through two defenders and offloaded to Niamh Johnston who ran in her hat trick try.

Anna Wilson then got the better of her opposite number and she showed her pace to score her second try out wide.

The final try of the day went to the try machine, Niamh Johnston, who got her fourth try, and it was converted by Victoria Benson.

The final whistle blew with a 45-5 final score and that put the Skins girls through to the Ulster Cup Final on Sunday, April 30 at Rainey OB RFC.

They will go there full of confidence to face Armagh/Banbridge in the showpiece final.