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Sunday, Janaury 31st, 2010
Ennis 42 - Old Crescent 0
Ennis secured a well deserved win in the Munster Junior Cup on Sunday with a 42-0 win over Old Crescent in a tie which will no doubt inject a much needed shot of confidence in the side following a poor start to the season.
Old Crescent were outclassed on the day by an Ennis team which showed impressive flashes of flair at times. Ennis found themselves rooted inside the Crescent 22 however little came of that possession. Despite leading 6-0 at the interval, with two penalty kicks from the boot of Bryan Murphy, it wasn't until after the restart that Ennis converted their efforts in to scores.
David Murphy is quick to get the ball out of the scrum
Just a minute in to the second half, Murphy kicked another 3 pointer. Soon afterwards, charging runs from forwards Roy Duggan and Pa Harding offered Shaun O’Flanagan the opportunity to score the opening try of the day. The winger managed to beat two defenders before touching down under the posts.
Not long after that, good hands from a combination of backs and forwards found Rory Murphy who managed to slip in under the posts to increase the home-side's lead to 20-0 lead after 50 minutes.
The front row combination of McInerney, Ryan and Farrell proved too intimidating for the visiting counterparts and the Ennis backline was quick to monopolise on this.
Ennis were dominant in the line-out
Ennis’s third try came from centre Gary Duggan while Noel Downes, who came in to the side with just 10 minutes to go, and scored two tries in quick succession the first of which materialised from a smashing run from Bryan Murphy who offloaded to the winger.
In the end the match finished 42-0 however it could easily have been 52-0 and more. The Ennis men will now be eager to meet in-form Richmond in the second round of the Munster Junior Cup.
Ennis:
Eric McInerney, Liam Ryan, Brian Farrell, Jason Considine, Pa Harding, Roy Duggan,
Rory Murphy, Damien Forde, David Murphy, Bryan Murphy, Greg O’Flanagan, Gary Duggan, Shaun O’Flanagan, Niall McMahon, Ger Fanning
Replacements Mark O’Halloran, Neol Downes, Eoin Downes, Stephen Dunne, Enda Galvin
*Filed by Pat Flynn, PRO
Sunday, Janaury 31st, 2010
Ennis RFC 3 - Waterpark 3
by Michael Corey
Ennis had their second outing in the ‘Avonmore’ Under 19 Munster league at Lee’s Road complex on Sunday. In what was an enthralling game of two evenly matched teams the game proved an exciting affair throughout the full 70 minutes.
Playing against the wind in the first half Ennis started poorly only managing to get out of there half on the rare occasion and had little scoring chances. Playing on the back foot they were lucky not to be behind in the 8th minute when Waterpark’s centre Kirsey knocked on with the line at his mercy against a stretched defence.
In a game where the referee stamped his presence, there was no continuity in play with little time being afforded to both teams to recycle ball out of rucks. Following a Waterpark penalty in the 20th minute Ennis lacked the sharpness to recover the ball when it came back from the cross bar from a Cunningham attempt and from the subsequent phases of play Hayes and Flynn held Conway up over the line to keep the score line 0-0. There were few other chances until the half with both teams struggling to get on top.
Where Waterpark held full command of territory in the first half it was Ennis who took it over for the second period. With only 5 minutes gone in the second half Duggan was wide and short of the mark from a penalty 45metres out but 5 minutes later, following another penalty for hands in the ruck, atoned for the miss with one from just outside the 22 to put the home side ahead by three points.
Ennis piled on the pressure and, after a committed run, Talty crashed over the line only to be adjudged to be held up. For the ensuing scrum Brandon picked but was driven back with Waterpark turning over the ball to clear their lines. Ennis’ Munster under 19 backrow, Gearoid Crowe, picked up a yellow card mid way through the second half for persistent slowing down of the ball at the breakdown but Waterpark couldn’t muster enough possession to mount an attack to take advantage of their extra man. On his return Crowe, now refreshed, lifted the Ennis pack with an electric run but was held up short of the line.
With three minutes on the clock Waterpark made one last drive up the field to salvage something from the game and following a controversial refereeing decision were awarded a penalty 35 metres out to the right of the posts. Cunningham coolly slotted it home to level the game 3-3.
With only two minutes left on the clock there were no other scorable chances falling for both teams from the resulting kick off. A draw was probably a fair result with each team having a dominant half. With both teams now level on league points with one game left in the pool stages, it will all rest on Ennis’ next outing away to Fermoy on the weekend of February 13th/14th.
This is a must win game to progress either into a playoff with Waterpark or, if they fail against UL Bohemian, then into the semi final of the competition. It all now rests in Ennis’ own hands to progress.
*Filed by Pat Flynn, PRO
Sunday, Janaury 17th, 2010
Ennis U19's overcome UL Bohs
UL Bohemian RFC 7 - Ennis RFC 15
Ennis under 19’s had a very good win in the Avonmore Pan Munster League on Sunday away to UL Bohmian.
Played at Annacotty outside Limerick in what was ideal playing conditions, it was UL Bohemian that started the better with Ennis finding it hard to stay the pace set resulting in playing a defensive game for the first quarter. Boh’s squandered a few scorable chances during this period due to poorly executed passing and handling and the visitors were very lucky not to go behind.
Ennis finally got into the game and after retaining some sustained possession in the Bohs half, the first score of the game was from a penalty awarded in the 19th minute when Bohs were adjudged to be offside from a rook. Cathal Duggan slotted Ennis’ first scorable chance in off the post. Bohs replied immediately from the kick off with a converted try scored by the dangerous Vincent Walsh and it was converted by the very capable fly half Alan Rossiter. Both teams fought a bruising encounter until the break with the score remaining at 7-3 in favour of the home team.
The second half started at great pace with the cobwebs now finally shaken off from the inactivity over the Christmas period due to the recent bad weather. Ennis made early replacements in the front row bringing on Hennessy and Moloney along with O’Freighil at scrum half. In the 46th minute the game saw a moment of brilliance when Duggan made an astute break after a ‘show and go’ and when tackled 10 metres from the line made an perfectly weighted pass to the crashing Cian Flynn whose momentum thundered through the now scrambling defence to score close to the posts. Duggan converted to leave the game on tender hooks at 7-10.
With 60 minutes on the clock Gearoid Crowe was shown yellow for a late tackle on O’Keeffe’s kick ahead. With a numerical advantage the next ten minutes was all Bohs with most of it spent on the Ennis Line. Ennis’ defence was resolute in the pack with Flynn and Hayes extinguishing wave after wave of attacks up the centre of the park. It was only after Ennis won back the ball over their own goal line and touching it down that relief was found when Duggan hoofed it up field behind the unprepared Boh’s defence. From the resulting foray Ennis’ inspirational captain, Alan Brandon, scored a magnificent try in the right corner after been brought to ground twice and smashing through any other Bohs players who were misguided in thinking that they were going to stop him.
After a failed conversion Bohs couldn’t respond from Brandon’s Coup de Grace and with 5 minutes left on the clock, it was a satisfied Ennis that left the field with a 7-15 win. Ennis’ next outing in the league will be at home to Waterpark RFC from Waterford on January 30th.
Ennis: Michael Vaughan, John Devlin, Connor Hayes, Cian Flynn, Mathew Lyons, Cathal Duggan, David Ryan, Abdul Ahmed, David O’Connor, Eanna Talty, Adam Ryan, Ronan Boylan, Bernard Moran, Gearoid Crowe, Alan Brandon Subs: Shane Hogan, Cian McKeown, Tirghnan O'Frighil for D. Ryan, Brendan Moloney for Ahmed, Robert Hennessy for Talty, Darragh O’Loughlin for A. Ryan, Connor Hanrahan for Moran, Aidan Kenny for Hayes
UL Bohemian: Graham O’Keeffe, Paul Flannery, James Byrne, Brian Rolls, Donal Higgins, Alan Rossiter, John Power, Jorsan Daly, Gavin Fahy, Shane O’Riordan, Vincent Walsh, Terrance O’Sullivan, Sean Nicholas, Paddy Gleeson Subs: Gerard Quilty, Colm Doyle, Cathal Phelan, Adrian Howard, Ian Hickey
*Filed by Pat Flynn, PRO
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