Defeat from the jaws of victory

Donaghadee 14 : 17 Enniskillen

Harry Allen reports

The biggest crowd of the season stood in welcome winter sunshine as they waited for this Provincial Towns' Cup semi-final to start.

The weather may have been cheering after the week's snow, but it had left the playing surface just a little slippery.

Scrum-half Jonny Phillips fired a huge pass to a wide Blewitt and he repeated the skill with a long ball to Allen coming into the line. The full-back sprinted as far as he could and then with perfect timing he fed Garnham on the wing. He was half-tackled a few metres short, but the still-slippery pitch surface allowed his momentum to carry him to the goal-line for a thrilling score. Millar missed the difficult kick, but Donaghadee were now right back in the game and only 10-8 behind.

The second period was still young as Millar delighted the home supporters with a wide-out penalty to edge Donaghadee into the lead at 11-10.

The Dee men stuck to their task and, although denied the try that had seemed so close, they did receive some recompense when they gained another penalty which Millar was glad to convert for 14-10.

The Fermanagh men could see on the scoreboard that the end of the game was close. They also well knew what to do in such circumstances. Simple, but clean possession at the line-out, well-timed ball to the scrum-half and a run to the right side open field was the call. Donaghadee drifted their defence as the ball was shifted, but somehow Enniskillen seemed to have too many men and the last of these was able to crash over Donaghadee's line for a sudden reversal from 14-10 to 14-15. When the conversion emphasised this to 14-17 Donaghadee rushed to restart, but the sound of the final whistle struck them to the heart. This was as good an example of defeat wrenched from the jaws of victory as one is likely to meet.