League title for Ennis U-13s

Ennis                        11
UL Bohemians       10
ENNIS won the North Munster U-13 League last Sunday at St Senan’s grounds in Shannon, by beating UL Bohemians in a thrilling replay that went right down to the final whistle. This win has given this very talented panel of players an unbeaten league run for the season, in what was their first season playing a full 15-a-side game.
It would have been a huge disappointment for Ennis to lose this league to the third-placed team as it was finished in a play-off format, after what was a season full of dedication and hard work by these young players.
On this occasion, Ennis showed the greater hunger and resilience.
The match was played in perfect conditions and UL Bohemians won the toss and elected to receive the ball. By securing immediate possession, they took the game to Ennis who were to spend most of the first period between the halfway line and their 22. Defence has been one of Ennis’ strengths this season and it was tested time and time again in the first 15 minutes
Mescall, R Cahill and Carmody were resolute in the middle of the park with McGann, Ugwueru and Cabey doing well out wide. The Ennis forwards put themselves under a lot of pressure by not putting runners to ground at their first attempt and were poor in retention of ball when going to ground and these turnovers were way too frequent.
When Ennis finally got into their opponents’ 22, they were awarded a penalty for offside at a ruck and David Mescall’s kick was true to put Ennis 3-0 in front at the break.
From the restart, Bohs again put great pressure on Ennis and after a lineout and some resultant phases of attack, the Bohemian’s tight head prop crashed over the line for a great try and with the successful conversion, they nosed ahead 7-3. From the restart, Ennis forwards finally clicked into gear and with some great penetration from their captain Niall O’Brien, Ennis were gifted another penalty under the posts for another offside infringement. Mescall duly converted to keep the score board ticking over.
The pace of the game increased and after some frantic play, UL Bohemians received another penalty that was converted to stretch their lead to 10-6. Ennis took the game into their opponent’s 22 and after missing out on one very scoreable chance, Alan Culligan, made a break for the line. Seeing that his route was blocked, he popped out a lovely pass to scrum-half Darragh Ó Sé, who ran around the defensive line to score in the corner to great cheers from the large Ennis support. Mescall missed the difficult conversion leaving Ennis with a one-point lead with five minutes on the clock.
Bohemian’s just threw everything they had at Ennis for the remainder of the game and after putting multiple phases together, Ennis were on the ropes and just hanging on. UL Bohemians finally threw a poor pass in open play and Ennis pounced on the ball to turn over possession and when recycled, Ó Sé was only too delighted to kick the ball off the field for the final whistle to blow.
Both teams were applauded off the pitch by a very appreciative crowd for providing such an exciting and sporting game. The cup was presented by Munster branch delegate, Tom McCoy, to an elated Ennis captain, Niall O’Brien.
It was noted that other winning captain’s names on this cup were Munster and Ireland players, Barry Murphy and Keith Earls.
Ennis had stand-out performances from open-side flanker Alan Culligan in the forwards and in full-back, Conor Cahill, who counter-attacked at every opportunity. This win was deserved by an Ennis team who didn’t panic when behind and under immense pressure.

Ennis team and league panel: C Cahill, C McGann (M Cabey), L Carmody, R Cahill, I Ugwueru, D Mescall (2 pen), D Ó Sé (1 try), M Fitzgerald (G Kelly), J Colleran, C Sheehy, E Leen (K Butler), R Corey, C Talty, N O’Brien, A Culligan; E Ó Ceallaigh, E Grace, D Kirwan, S Knox, T Hannon, S Maher J Warren, M Haugh, S Magliocco, R Fitzpartick, C Chapman, J Hartigan, S Hogan, D Kelly, C Keogh, M Iwalewa, C Farrell, J Connolly, B Monahan, A Cleland, B Rynne, C Keane, C Kerns, I Kerin, J O’Donnell, B O’Reilly.