A young and inexperienced Skerries first XV squad produced a spirited fighting display in their most recent AIL 2B outing against Sligo but it wasn’t enough to earn a first victory of 2025, as they fell on the wrong side of the 7-12 scoreline at Holmpatrick.
On the back of a bitterly disappointing defeat to Malone in the previous round, this was always going to be another difficult challenge for the injury-hit Skerries side, which featured eight u20s players in the matchday squad, and only five of the team that started the opening day victory over Galwegians.
Despite losing rising star Tim Deering to a head wound inside the opening minutes – he subsequently returned to the fray with a couple of stitches – the makeshift home side showed no signs of fear playing against the elements in an evenly-fought first half.
Indeed, they gave as good as they got and enjoyed a fair share of possession and territory, as well as standing up to the traditional strength of the Sligo scrum, where Connor Haynes and Ryan Kiernan – on their first AIL appearances of the season – did well to keep former Connacht prop, Conan O’Donnell mostly quiet.
Remarkably, there was no score during that opening period and Skerries undoubtedly turned around the happier of the two sides, knowing the wind would be in their favour for the remainder of the match.
The hosts duly set up camp inside Sligo territory through the opening ten minutes of the second period but out of nowhere, they were hit by a killer blow against the run of play when an unconvincing clearance was spilled and fell the way of Sligo winger Ronan O’Connor to race up to the opposite 5m line.
Now on the back foot, Skerries conceded an offside penalty and another from the resulting lineout, which allowed Sligo the chance to use their powerful scrum and they were duly awarded with a penalty try and a lead of 0-7.
Normal business resumed thereafter, and with both sides reduced to 14 for a spell, Jack Litchfield had the chance to open Skerries’ tally with a penalty, only for the kick to sail just wide on what was otherwise an impressive outing for the young fullback.
Litchfield’s influence on proceedings continued to grow during that second half, and after an earlier scything run and a couple of nice passes had almost unlocked the defence, he was eventually rewarded as he took a wide pass from Paul O’Loghlen and rounded his opposite number to touch down and his own conversion made it 7-7 with a quarter of an hour left to play.
Critically however, the hosts coughed up possession directly from the restart and allowed Sligo to build momentum deep inside the 22, where a couple of efficient phases to the left and then back right created the space for Louis McVitty to touch down in the corner.
The missed conversion left the scores delicately poised at 7-12 but as Skerries pushed for a potential defining score, Sligo enjoyed arguably their best period of the game and their longest stay inside the opposition half.
The home side did finish the half up the other hand but as the start of the half had frustrated them, they just couldn’t find the breakthrough and Sligo held on for a valuable victory in their quest to avoid relegation.
Next up for Skerries is the eagerly anticipated visited to north Dublin neighbours Malahide on March 1st, with the hosts also battling for survival in the division.
Skerries versus Malone:
- Connor Haynes
- Darragh McEneaney
- Evann Shelley
- Rossa Gilbride
- Cian McGuinness
- Barry Murphy
- Paddy Finn
- Peter O’Neill
- Eoghan Carron
- Paul O’Loghlen (capt)
- Dara Twomey
- Tim Deering
- Davey Goodman
- Brían Walsh
- Jack Litchfield
- Griffin Carrick
- Ryan Kiernan
- Ben McKiernan
- John Healy
- Jeff Sexton