Enniskillen 1st XV travelled to Royal School rivals Dungannon on Saturday morning in what is always an eagerly anticipated fixture. The Dungannon team had started their season very brightly, having won all of their matches to date. Dungannon demonstrated this strength from the off against a bus weary ERGS team who were 14-0 after two well worked Dungannon tries, firstly by their loosehead prop and then quickly followed by their star man at inside centre. The Enniskillen boys rallied and despite having a Jake Woods try disallowed for a forward pass, continued to pressurise the home defence and eventually broke through with fullback Harry Ingram picking a great line out wide to go over the whitewash. Enniskillen continue to dominate towards the end of the half but the Dungannon inside centre intercepted a pass in his own ’22’ and ran the length of the pitch before being tackled with 5 metres to go, he managed an excellent offload to his supporting wing to dive over in the corner. 21-5 at half time to Dungannon.
ERGS started the second half as they finished the first, dominating the physical exchanges but lacking the cutting edge and clinical finishing of their counterparts. One player not missing that x-factor was Ben McLaren, the newly converted football recruit, got the ball well inside his own half and took off, breaking two attempted tackles and outpacing the covering fullback to score under the posts. This left the score at 21-12after Tadhg Hambly added the conversion. However, the Enniskillen side began to tire and Dungannon hit back with two late tries to take the score line to 33-12. The final margin was perhaps flattering for the home side but it was a good lesson for the ERGS boys who continue to show glimpses of their ability without putting together a full 70-minute performance.
