It was to be a tough day at the office for the Enniskillen Royal U13s as they met a strong and well drilled RBAI A team. During the opening 10 minutes of the game the ERGS side looked good and very quickly had RBAI on the ropes in their own 22, a score looking imminent. However a break in play for the referee to deal with an injury seemed to cause the Enniskillen boys to loose their momentum and within minutes of the restart the RBAI back-line engineered the first of many tries.
Despite glimpses of excellent play, the ERGS boys found it increasingly difficult to deal with the successive phased play of the opposition and simply had to dig-in and find it within themselves to try and defend against decisive play.
A number of individuals showed real character during the game and refused to give up. Commendable performances came from the front 3 of Nathan Cullinan, Peter Read and Ethan Clarke. As always Captain Paul McConkey continued to harass his opposite man and cause a number of mistakes to be made by the opposition, whilst newly appointed No10 James Bloomfield kept his calm under pressure and continued to distribute the ball well to the back line when the opportunity availed. The tackling of Shay Owen, Daniel Johnston and George Pattison was exemplary and saved the team from several tries being scored against them but unfortunately the defensive line often lacked commitment and organisation resulting in a 40-0 defeat by the end of the match.
A tough lesson learned for all but hopes remain high for next week’s fixture against Limavady.
