Enniscorthy under 13s travelled to Tullow for their their Leinster Cup quarter final match against Tullow on Saturday afternoon…
Enniscorthy got off to a flying start and were on the scoreboard after 1 minute when fullback Michael Kinsella gathered the ball on the right wing after some excellent work by the forward pack and he made 30 yards to score in the right corner and the try wasn’t converted.
During the next ten minutes the forwards on the day of Harry McCafferty, Lee Martin, Daithi Medcalfe, C. O’Brien, J.P. Farrell, D.Geraghty, D. Harrington and A. Horan played some very fine rugby and it was notable they made a number of turnovers in the scrum but Tullow were up fast and prevented clean ball to the backs on numerous occasions. On the 11th minute, Tom White cut through the Tullow defence and evaded some tough tackles until he was brought down five metres from the line and from the resulting ruck winger Barry Doyle gathered and pushed over for a well deserved try for the visiting team to the left of the posts and Tom White converted to leave the score 12 points to nil and Enniscorthy cruising. During the next five minutes Enniscorthy powered forward but were denied any clean runs inside of Tullows 22.
Enniscorthy did defend well and all the backs of Mike Kelly, Tom White, Barry Doyle, Sebastian Pim, Eoin Murphy, Kevin O Connor and Michael Kinsella tackled well and Michael Kinsella made a try saving tackle on Tullows huge outhalf Darragh Murphy a few metres from the line after tracking him for over 20 metres in the 16th minute. Tullow kept up the pressure then and they were rewarded in the 20th Minute when Darragh Murphy beat several tackles and scored in the left corner. The conversion wasn’t scored and the half time score was 12 points to five. Enniscorthy started the second half well but could not make much ground into the Tullow half and again Tullows outhalf made a telling run and scored a try in the 10th minute to the left of the posts which he converted. Enniscorthy did respond well and started to play good rugby again and with a very good passing movement in the 15th minute by the backs, Sebastian Pim drove through the Tullow 22 and he went within five metres of the line before he laid off a great pass when he was tackled to Michael Kinsella, who scored in the left corner but the try wasn’t converted and it left the score at 17 to 12.
Enniscorthy did run some good ball but to their credit Tullow tackled well in their own half and twarted many good runs, the last one being when winger Barry Doyle made twenty metres and beat a number of tackles before he was bundled over the touch line about 7 metres from the Tullow line after he had collected a pass from Donal Harrington who had made 20 metres bursting through the middle. During the last number of minutes in injury time Tullow camped close to Enniscorthys line and try as they could Enniscorthy could not clear the ball and as tiredness set in, Tullow s reward came when one of the forward pack sneaked the ball over the line for a try in the left corner to level the score. Tullows outhalf stepped up and kicked a massive kick which bounced off the right post and dropped onto the crossbar before it fell on the inside for the conversion.
After the restart the ball spilled into touch and Tullow won their line out and cleared their lines when they kicked into touch and the final whistle sounded. Tullow winning by 19 points to 17 and the Enniscorthy lads were devastated. They had all tried so hard and played so well and Mark Kavangh and Jack Reck when introduced made telling contributions. Over the past few weeks the team had knuckled down and the importance of a good panel helped the team so much in training.
Next up is away tournament in Gorey on April 7th in Gorey. Panel: Michael Kinsella, Kevin O Connor, Eoin Murphy, Sebastian. Pim, Barry Doyle, Tom White, Mike Kelly, D.Medcalfe, H. McCafferty, L. Martin, C. O’Brien, J.P. Farrell, D. Geraghty, D. Harrington, A. Horan, Mark Kavanagh, C. Mackey, Mark Murphy, Jack Reck, Peter Kelly, Aaron Kenny.
