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Enniskillen IV 21 - 5 Strabane II | Wed 31st Oct 2007 | | REPORT BY GARETH "CALAMITY" CALDWELL
Enniskillen IV 21 - 5 Strabane II
Team: - Les, Stevenson, Lee, Ricky, Stuarty, Mark, Nigel, Jonny Kee, Clive, David W, Housty, Greg??? Subs Garry B, Barry, Gareth C.
Once again I entered the changing room in Enniskillen to be met with a raft of new faces and some familiar ones with JK being dragged out of retirement and Housty appearing (apparently this was his second outing). I wasnt sure how the team had looked but I was reliably informed that we had a good outfit which, although unproven, had remarkable prospects. Housty was doing the kicking which wasnt going that well to be honest. The Enniskillen men had arrived full of hope and cheer in the knowledge that their III's team wherent playing so they had an impressive looking bunch of guys lining up against us many of whom I had never saw before even though I have played Enniskillen several times. They had a few big men in the scrum however they wherent up to carrying the ball much and went down after the first tackle. Strabane had the better of the opening exchanges with much of the first 20 minutes being playing insde the skins half. The bal had been thrown out wide and the strabane winger and skins centre clashed heads. This reculted in the first substition of the match with myself going on rather earlier than expected. The wind was causing us problems with the ball swirling up high. This didnt help my already rather dodgy ball catching with a ball swirling well awqay from where I had predicted it was going to land. Fortunately som other switched on player knew what was happening and rescued the situation.
Strabane just couldnt turn attack into points with our few chances clsoe to the line being wasted with bad decisions and scrappy play. I wouldnt say that skins played well they just got luckier than us. Half time came with the score tied 0 - 0. We intirduced Garry B at half time and the skins also intirduced several new players. This seemed to bolster their team with them pushing over for the first score of the match within 10 mins of the restart after the scrum being re set 3 times. The same man picked and drove every time however he eventually wore down the strabane defense and scrambled over. The conversion went over and we tried again. This time the restart was caught and extremely poor tackling by most of the strabane team resulted in the skins making 40 metres up the pitch to put them into a position where they once again got a penalty and the resulting tap and go got them a try. The conversion went over again and the strabane tails started to stop wagging. Pressure was upped however it didnt help. At this stage the skins had now brought on their 4th reserve player. We where told that they where using blood replacements although I for one didnt see any blood and didnt see anybody getting any treatment at the side line. Also, nobody came back on the retake their places. In the mean time the skins managed to score another try which resulted in another substition for the skins. I counted 5 or 6 new players coming on in the second half. Now dont get me wrong and dont think Im a sore loser but I thought we could use 3 subs???
Anyway by now the scrums where uncontested as the skins had taken off a prop and the replacement wasnt a specialised player so the ref had no choice. From this platform Strabane where working much better as the skins pack where just too heavy and dominant for us. We worked our way up pitch into the far corner and got a try. Nigel took the tap and go and managed to barge his way over for a well deserved try considering we where now playing much better. Strabane had all the pressure in the last fwe minutes although it just didnt result in any more points and the ref finally blew up. All in all it was an impressive performance from a team who had never played before as a unit. Much work has to be done on the training pitch so the captain sent a rallying cry for extra effort to get the players out and run through moves so we jsut have to wait now and see what happens. Also we are looking to the future as the skins have to come to newtown. Personally I dont think they will have the same pool of players to choose from so we should have a better result on the home leg.
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