The Medallion squad got back to winning ways against Omagh Academy last Saturday. Despite the cold and the soft ground conditions they turned in one of their best performances of the season so far and played some very attractive rugby. The Enniskillen boys scored nine tries, but were equally pleased to keep their own line intact.
Right from the kick off the home side attacked with width and purpose. Stinson was in fine form and got on the end of some great team inter-play to cross the line first. Unfortunately a pass was judged to have been forward and the referee, who had been playing a penalty advantage, brought play back to the Omagh ‘22’, on the right hand side .
Keys kicked to the corner and from the resulting lineout Ryan Phair touched down from the base of the maul. The second try followed shortly after. Davis has mastered the art of winning rucks on his own and, from such a turn-over, Smyton took play deep into the Omagh half. Gamble was in support and carried it on before the ball was moved quickly to the left and Brown, who hit the line at pace to score under the posts.
Clearly smarting from the Blackrock defeat, Smyton then scored a hat-trick in quick succession, with some very powerful running, before Brown closed the half with his second, to give Enniskillen a lead of 36-0 at the break.
Smyton opened the second half scoring, after Henry Keys had stolen an Omagh lineout and Wilson had taken it on to set up a ruck ten yards from the line. Scrum-half Mattie Bothwell fed a short pass to Smyton on the crash ball.
Following an excellent game in defence against Blackrock, Taine Haire had the opportunity to show his prowess in attack in this game. His distribution facilitated a lot of the good things Enniskillen did and he would score a well deserved try when he took a flat, cut-out pass from Bothwell, close to the Omagh line, centre field.
Stuart Brown then hit another good line angle to take a wide pass from Eddie Keys and bring the game to a close. Keys converted three out of three in the second half.
Whilst Omagh didn’t present the same challenge as Blackrock, they had still managed to be very disruptive when the two sides met earlier in the season. This time Enniskillen took control of the game from the kick-off and put on one of their best performances of the season, particularly given the difficult playing conditions.
The day was marred, however, when Andrew Patton incurred a serious hip injury following a great tackle on his opposite number. Unfortunately he looks likely to miss the rest of the season, which is a real blow to the squad as the young Derrylin man can play a number of positions in the back-line.
Match day squad: M. Graham. R.Phair.. J.White. B.Davis. M.Wilson. M.Beatty. D.Stinson. H.Keys.R. Gamble. C.Smyton (C) M.Bothwell. H.Graham. A.Patton. E.Keys. Stephen Balfour. T.Haire. J.Bothwell. A.Sanderson. S.Brown.
