1st XV miss out at Cooke

Enniskillen v Cooke

Enniskillen left Shaw’s bridge last weekend with just a losing bonus point to show for their trip after a frustrating day at the office against Cooke. Enniskillen moved the ball well and looked dominant at times, but early injuries for Skins and struggles at set piece against a heavy forward pack allowed the home side back into the game in the second half.
Cooke started well and made their way into the Enniskillen half but Skins looked comfortable in defence; the back row of Ruledge, Rooney and Keenan covering all bases. A breakdown infringement did give Cooke the chance to take the lead, but the kick drifted wide of the posts. An early injury to centre Stephen Balfour the sour note of some determined defence.
For their first period of attack, Skins looked very threatening. The forward pack particularly made excellent ground around the park with Jack and Neil Rutledge presenting the halfback pairing of Dane and Lendrum with a multitude of options, the offload game too proving to be hard for the home side to manage. A break from Mark O’Shea gave Skins the territory and Cooke began to creak and yield penalties under pressure. A flurry of carries on the try line ended with David Buchanan powering over, converted by Lendrum to lead 0-7.
Cooke came back into the game now and Skins’ luck began to turn; captain Gavin Warrington left the field after an injury, forcing a further reshuffle. The cooke backline showed their evasive abilities now and they found gaps in defence all too often, while their big ball carriers shrugged off some attempts, leaving the home side deep in the Skins half. A dominant Cooke scrum on the 5 metre line provided the platform for a score, conversion missed to trail 5-7.
An offside penalty allowed Skins back into the Cooke half and, while an error led to a Cooke scrum, they were deemed to be illegal at the resulting aggressive shove and Lendrum had a kick within range to extend the lead, 5-10 at the end of the half.
Skins started in good form once again and their attack continued to make excellent ground, but an error in midfield gave Cooke possession and a snipe around the edge of the ruck had them within scoring range yet again, a ruck infringement giving Cooke an easy three points, now trailing only 8-10.
Another attacking flurry from Skins was turned on it’s head yet again with another contentious call around the breakdown from the referee that had Enniskillen pinned back in their own half. Again Skins rallied and staged another siege into the Cooke half and yet again the referee blew the whistle in Cooke’s favour at the ruck and left Skins instead defending close to their line. An excellent George Foster tackle kept out a score in the corner and Skins staged a fine exit with the lineout functioning well under pressure through Steven Fox and Rooney. A midfield scrum shortly afterwards, however, led to a Cooke penalty after a huge shove and from the resulting lineout the home side crossed again to take the lead for the first time in the match, converted for 15-10.
Again Enniskillen took no time to put the home side under pressure; Lendrum moving the ball well end to end with Foster and O’Shea making good ground out wide and Skins were hard to contain, but a knock-on on the 5 metre ended a promising opportunity and Skins were back to square one when the struggling scrum yielded a penalty to Cooke. Bizarrely Skins were knocking on the door within seconds yet again but another ruck penalty ended that too. Most of the last quarter was spent in the Cooke half but errors or infringements ended every effort with no reward, and the fixture ended 15-10.
It was a hugely frustrating day for Skins who had far too many positive indicators to be ending a game on the wrong side of the scoreboard. Fantastic attacking rugby and great cohesion between forwards and backs could have been deadly, and four or five less errors at pivotal times could have meant four or five scoring opportunities that could have been, as well as a ruck performance that, while harshly refereed at times, had to be adapted to. Skins will be glad of a break now after a busy first half of the season and they return to competition on Thursday 30th December, returning to Cooke coincidentally in the next round of the Junior Cup.