Skins 3XV See off Rainey Counterparts

Minor League Premiere

Enniskillen 3rdXV 29 Rainey 3rdXV 14

Enniskillen hosted Rainey’s 3rd string on Saturday after a couple hard weeks on the road. Following on from the severe frost on Friday night the match was played in near perfect conditions.

The opening exchanges were frantic, with the visitors having the lions share of possession and territory, but stout defence from Monaghan, Fee and Balfour especially kept the Skins line in tact. Some barrelling runs from Duncan, Wilkinson and Willis marshalled by scrum half Barton, started giving skins a decent bit of territory, after a Rainey infringement 25 metres from goal McVitty opened the scoring with a sweetly struck penalty. Not long after Skins got their first try of the game. A clever cross field kick from McVitty found Maguire who once gathered the ball had no problem using his speed to round the defence to score in the corner. The visitors came back strong and not long after got a try of their own after some good play.

Skins knew they had to up their performance. After numerous infringements from the visitors play went inside the Rainey 22. From the resulting lineout Fitzpatrick found Allan, the power from props Breen and Andy Dane seen the skins maul trundle towards the try line and once over Phillips got the reward of the try. The score was converted which gave skins a half time lead of 15 points to 7.

Rainey started the second period strong. And after some soft defending they got their second try of the match, which was converted leaving skins with a slender 1 point lead. This kicked the skins machine back into gear. Sustained pressure in the Rainey half seen Phillips crash over for his second score of the match, again converted by McVitty. The skins pressure continued, the back 3 of Cunningham, Coalter and Kelly returned loose kicks with interest, supported well by Harry Dane, and finally after a prolonged period in the visitors 22, that man Phillips went over the line for a well deserved Hattrick. McVitty concerted again which concluded the scoring giving skins a well deserved 29-14 points win against an aggressive and dangerous visiting team.