Clondalkin 27 Enniscorthy 15
Enniscorthy under 19 were knocked out of Darcy Leinster Cup which after their recent disappointing display in Leinster League semi final leaves a side with huge potential out of all premier competitions in early March. Enniscorthy travelled to Dublin with Murt Kehoe, who put in a good shift at prop, deputising for the ill Conor McDonald with Rob Frayne, who moved the line well, starting at out half with Brendan Kearney moving to full back for the injured Wally Furlong.
It is a testament to the performance that all Enniscorthys scores came from the boot of Kearney with four well struck penalty goals with the addition of a peach of a drop goal and at one stage, early in second half, actually lead 15-3 on limited possession. However the concession of easy penalty brought the home side back into the game with their pack striking soon after when from a ruck on the line the Enniscorthy forwards failed to protect the short side for an easy touch down with a magnificent conversion to follow to leave the score 15-10. From the next attack Enniscorthy decided to run a kickable penalty and ended up turning over the ball with the concession of a penalty to put Clondalkin on the attack again. This spurred on the home side and they upped their dominance in the loose and launched their number 8 off the scrums which was facilitated by a lack of vigilance in the back row which perhaps should have been fixed by quicker action from line. Clondalkin were now getting at the heart of visitors defence , showing more hunger and commitment , it was inevitable that disaster was imminent, with two turnovers , while Enniscorthy were trying to run ball out of defence, resulting in two tries in quick succession to kill off the game as a contest.
It was a game with which anyone associated with Enniscorthy will not recall with any satisfaction , while their scrum held up well, the only clean possession they secured from line out was from Brian Bolger at 4, with the home pack totally dominant on the deck. The Enniscorthy inside backs held onto ball at times ignoring the overlapping Dylan Walsh and sub Diarmuid Breen, both who gave their all, making it easy for home side to defend their line. Only Enniscorthy players who could have been fully satisfied with their performance were the aforementioned as well as captain Michael Fanning who lead by example, hooker Davy Murphy who played wholeheartedly until he fell foul of referee at end and received an unnecessary red card and Brendan Kearney who could hardly have done much more in a fine kicking performance with the hours of practise with kicking coach Tommy James reflected in the display.
Panel: W.Furlong, R.Farrell, M.Steemers, J.White, M.Doyle, D.Walsh, B.Windsor, B.Kearney, D.Dunne, J.Murphy, D.Murphy, C.McDonald, D.Fortune, M.Fanning, C.Mernagh, B.Bolger, T.Ryan, J.Barron, S.Bolger, T.Dempsey, M.Kehoe, J.Flood, N.McCrea, R.Frayne, J.Squance, M.Mackey, C.O’Neill, D.McDonald, N.Dunbar, S.Dwyer, J.Kehoe.
