Enniskillen v Cooke Match Report

Enniskillen 1XV v Cooke

Enniskillen 1XV 28
Cooke 1XV 12

Enniskillen 1XV got their league season off to a flying start last Saturday hosting Cooke RFC. The Belfast side are always formidable but haven’t managed to turn Skins over at Mullaghmeen for a few years now. The much changed Enniskillen side featured a lot of new faces, including four Keys brothers in the starting line up, but they didn’t have it all their own way as the visitors stuck with them in the first half, responding immediately to a try from Angus Keys with a score from the restart. But a dominant second half and three more Enniskillen scores put the result to bed.
Skins started well with some fluid interplay in attack between backs and forwards, young second row pairing Michael Rooney and Neil Rutledge making good inroads but small errors gave the visitors some possession to work with. Cooke asked plenty of questions of the defence with some well placed kicks down field but a couple of line out malfunctions stopped them from sustaining any pressure in the Skins half.
Play remained mostly in the middle of the park trading blows for some time as both teams found their feet, but it was scrum half Eddie Keys who spotted an opportunity with a snipe around the ruck from halfway to less than 10 metres out, ably supported by Jack Rutledge who showed deft handling to shift the ball to Angus Keys on the wing for the first try, converted by Eddie Keys to go 7-0 up.
It was a short lived lead as some miscommunication and a bit of poor luck at the restart had the ball land serenely into a Cooke player’s hands as he trotted in for an immediate try, converted to even things up, 7-7.
Cooke continued to show determination in defence and didn’t make life easy for the Skins attack, although this often verged on the illegal often and the visitors began to leak penalties which Skins likely could have punished more if not for some unforced errors.
The second half began with another penalty for Enniskillen after a dangerous challenge in the air from the visitors. A kick to touch and well worked line out led to a good passage of play as Lendrum sent a well placed pass to Connor Keys who carved through the defence bringing play to the 22’ and, after some carries from the pack, another penalty came Enniskillen’s way. This led to a clinical score from the pack who set up a maul off a line out on the 5 metre line and trundled over with hooker Matthew Beatty touching down for the second score, converted to lead 14-7.
The next 20 minutes were fairly frantic with both sides struggling to build phases without errors or penalties seeping in. It was some magic from Connor Keys who broke through and sprinted to just outside the 22’, brought down short of the line, Michael Rooney was there to gather an offload for the third try, converted to lead 21-7.
A handling error after the restart gave the visitors another attacking opportunity and soon they kept themselves in touching distance with repeated carries off the scrum before crossing in the left corner of the pitch for a score, unconverted to trail 21-12.
Cooke had their tails up now and were playing some nice rugby while making substantial inroads into the Skins half, but a spill out wide was gathered by the opportunistic Connor Keys who somehow broke through a few desperate tackles before seeing open pastures and going the length of the pitch for the bonus point try, converted again by younger brother Eddie for 4 from 4 conversions as the match drew to a close moments later.