Enniscorthy 20 Harlequins 29

Enniscorthy's new season in the AIL Division 2C began with a disappointing performance in their opening match in Alcast Park on Saturday.

Although missing a few key players through injury, they did welcome back Tony Ryan who returned after a successful twelve years playing at the top of the AIL.

He achieved every honour in the game whilst assisting Clontarf for that period and also played with Leinster.

The 32-year-old Davidstown man returned to his home club where he started his rugby career at eight years of age.

“I always said that I would finish my career with Enniscorthy and a lot of the lads I played with are still playing, so it is a great honour to return home and an even greater honour to captain the club,” he said.

Ryan and his team-mates will be hoping that the result on Saturday was just a blip. It was an error-strewn, indisciplined performance which was riddled with mistakes.

They had four players yellow carded throughout the 80 minutes.

They started really well and completely dominated the opening 15 minutes.

And although it took them a while to turn this advantage into scores, they eventually breached the whitewash.

They controlled the ball brilliantly from a line-out and hooker Davie Murphy touched down for the try.

Another young man, 18-year-old Cathal Kehoe, kicked the conversion to make it 7-0.

Kehoe was making his Senior debut and didn’t look out of place at any stage throughout the afternoon.

After scoring, Enniscorthy were completely on the backfoot for the remainder of the half as they lost ultimate control of possession and frustratingly gave away penalty after penalty.

In fact, they conceded twelve penalties in the opening 40 minutes, and just could not get out of their own half.

They were penalised heavily at the breakdowns although the refereeing of those situations did frustrate the home team. Timmy Morrissey was yellow-carded after persistent Enniscorthy infringements.

The Belfast side scored their first try deep into first-half injury time, with Steven Weir touching down and scrum-half Johnny McCracken adding the conversion.

Cathal Kehoe did kick a penalty on the stoke of the break to give Enniscorthy a 10-7 lead.

The visitors came storming out of the traps at the start of the second-half and scored their second try seven minutes in.

This was an excellent score as they pinned Enniscorthy in the right-hand countryside corner of the ground.

They then moved the ball at pace, with right wing Tane Hotham getting over in the corner to score (12-10). At that stage Enniscorthy had Lee Treacy sin-binned.

The visitors grabbed another try to extend the lead when out-half Thomas Armstrong scored, and with the conversion added they now had a 19-10 lead.

Tony Ryan was then yellow-carded although his driving tackle looked spot on, but the referee did not agree.

It was the fourth quarter before the home team started to up it a gear and at last play some creative rugby, and they were rewarded when Timmy Morrisey scored.

Tony Ryan was five minutes back on the field when he had to retire with a hamstring injury, but Enniscorthy took the lead again eight minutes from the end when they produced the best move of the game to put Kevin O’Connor away on the right to score their third try.

Kehoe, kicking into a strong wind, missed the conversion.

Enniscorthy continued to attack and almost got in, but the visitors’ stout defence kept them out.

Although leading 20-19, they did have a penalty chance in front of the posts but elected to run the ball and they were turned over.

From being under the pump, Harlequins worked the ball up the field to win a vital penalty in front of the posts from McCracken to push them 22-20 ahead as the game entered injury time.

And the home team’s chances of at least securing a losing bonus point went when they conceded another try in the final play of the game, and again it was Armstrong who obliged.

Enniscorthy did have one more chance to salvage something from the match but frustratingly kicked the ball away instead of keeping it in the hand just short of the line.

It was a poor performance from the home team who admittingly were not at full strength, but captain Tony Ryan made no excuses.

“This was our first match and we were certainly very rusty and also very poor at the set-pieces.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us but the season is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, and we will have to be better.

“I have every confidence in this group that we will.

“We will have a tough week training ahead of us and it doesn’t get any easier as we travel away to play the favourites Ballyclare next Saturday.”

Team: Angelo Todisco, Davie Murphy, M.J. Doyle, Liam Stamp Tomás Stamp, Lee Treacy, Timmy Morrissey, Tony Ryan (capt.), Arthur Dunne, Graham Barry, Miguel Byrne, Daniel Pim, David O’Dwyer, Kevin O’Connor, Cathal Kehoe. Subs. – (all used): Ore Lasisi, Adam Doyle, Tom Ryan, Killian Creed, Niall Parker, Ross Jacob.