‘Close-Knit’ Enniskillen Aiming To Go One Step Further In Junior Cup Final

James Ferguson, Enniskillen's current captain, leads an attack during their Energia All-Ireland Men's Junior Cup final clash with Clogher Valley two years ago ©John Dickson/Dickson Digital
Nestled just outside the biggest town in Fermanagh, Enniskillen Rugby Club is a beating heart of the community. Brothers, cousins, and sons have all donned the Skins jersey this year with the ambition of winning the Energia All-Ireland Men’s Junior Cup, and that dream could be achieved on Saturday.
This weekend marks just the second time Enniskillen will compete in the final of this prestigious national competition. They suffered a 30-18 defeat to local rivals Clogher Valley in the 2023 final.
Their route through to that season’s decider included a 52-5 win over Bective Rangers, their opponents this Saturday afternoon as the teams renew acquaintances at Ashbourne RFC. The game, which is being shown live on irishrugby+, has a 2.30pm kick-off time.
James Ferguson is Enniskillen’s captain this season as they look to consign that disappointing final loss to Clogher Valley to the history books. He lined out in the centre that day two years ago, and the experienced back has been a mainstay in the number 13 jersey this term.
Speaking to IrishRugby.ie, Ferguson said their full focus is on becoming All-Ireland Junior Cup champions as they temporarily park what has been an intriguing battle with Dromore at the top of the Ulster Rugby Championship Divison 1 table.
“To be honest, we’ve gone with the mantra this year, which I’m sure a lot of teams do – just one game at a time. So we’ve tried our best to not really think about it and get through the latest league games before this,” he said.
“But it’s always in the back of your mind that the final is coming up. So it’s nice to now put the league aside for a week and concentrate on this.
“We’ve had great support all year. Excitement is definitely building for this game, and hopefully we’ll get similar sort of support as we have been getting.
“Beaten two years ago, probably deservedly so. We were second best on the day, lacking a bit of experience, but it’s a lot of the same boys playing this weekend, the wrong we want to put right.”
Dromore got the better of Enniskillen, winning 21-19 at Barban Hill when the teams met in early December. Notably, Dromore were Bective’s Junior Cup semi-final opponents the following week, and the Dubliners had a successful trip north as narrow 11-7 winners.
Coached by Alastair Keys, Enniskillen have faced sides from Connacht and Leinster en route to the final, along with a quarter-final clash with fellow Ulster Championship outfit Cooke.
Ferguson has enjoyed playing opposition from outside of Ulster, including an overnight semi-final trip to play Tullow, as it helps give them some insight into what life could potentially be like if they were promoted to the Energia All-Ireland League.
“This competition in particular, I really enjoy (it) because it’s teams you haven’t played before, and you get a different sort of opposition, and they don’t know what you’re like either.
“You can sort of play your own game without having to worry too much about them. We find the southern teams, the Leinster teams in particular, are very big (that) we’ve come up against.
“So that’s obviously a new challenge to deal with and something if we have any aspirations of going up (to the All-Ireland League), these are good dry runs for that, and getting to stay over in Tullow the night before and things like that. It’s been good so far.
“We’ve had one hiccup against Dromore. They beat us and, obviously, Bective beat Dromore. We’re not in any way expecting much of a score difference in this final. They’re really 50-50 games.”
Ferguson first going involved with Enniskillen RFC at the age of seven, and the now-31-year-old is a veteran of their first team. He took over the captaincy from Steven Fox, and while he has featured regularly for Skins, he did take a couple of breaks here and there.
Once such break occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic when he switched to play Gaelic football as the sport returned to action before club rugby that year. Six months after switching to play with Enniskillen Gaels, he made his February debut in a Dr McKenna Cup match against Monaghan.
Ferguson lost a county final with the Gaels in 2021 against Derrygonnelly Harps, but a year later they overcame Erne Gaels to win their first county title since 2006.
Uncles Niall and Sam Corrigan were a big influence at the Gaels for Ferguson while on the other side, dad Reggie and another uncle, Raymond Ferguson, are both proud Skins clubmen.
A few short months after playing Gaelic football, he was back on the rugby pitch with Skins. Family ties are strong within the club, head coach Keys has three sons in the squad – Henry, Eddie (pictured below), and Angus. Another son, Connor, is the backs coach.
Not only are players playing for the club, they are playing for each other. Despite taking the captaincy reins, Ferguson feels his on-field role has not changed much, and is thankful for the leaders around him as they prepares for one of the biggest matches in the club’s history.
“Really on the pitch, it’s not much different,” he admitted. “Bar I’m a bit of a villain at times stopping the boys playing, because with this sort of young side, they have the skillset to play all the time, but sometimes, unfortunately, I have to slow that down.
“But like all teams these days, there are leadership groups and different things in place, so that is very much shared. Steven Fox (pictured below), the captain last year, is still in the squad, and Jack Rutledge is the vice-captain.
“Several other of the young boys really help out, so to me, you know, it’s not a massively different role. It’s a nice honour to have obviously at your home club.
“I’ve been playing rugby for Skins since I was young. Very strong family ties, like my dad would’ve played and my uncle would have played. Like a lot of the lads, we have family links to the club, and it’s very much a community club.
The likes of our coach (Alastair Keys), his three sons play, and then another of his sons coaches as well. There’s cousins in the team too, other sets of brothers, twins.
“So it’s very much a close-knit family oriented team. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I don’t know! But that’s the way it’s working so far. It’s nice.
“You want do it for your home town, and it’s always best winning it for your home club. It’s a reasonably small town where we come from, and the club’s outside the town, so very much a country club where everybody does know each other.
“With the last few years, we’ve had a wee bit of silverware (including winning the Towns Cup last year), but before that it’s not something that comes to us every season, and we do take it very seriously.
“That’s significant. It would be significant to win this, obviously, and even to compete in the final. You’ve no divine right to get to these finals, same as Bective.
“They’ve obviously had to work hard to do so, and were here in the final last year (against Ballyclare). So whilst it is significant, it is just another game. We don’t want to be overwhelmed by it either, we’re just looking forward to it, and I think that is the main thing.”
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Just one defeat in 11 league fixtures is their only blemish on an otherwise excellent campaign so far. Ferguson is fully aware of the attacking threats that Bective bring, and believes that it could come down to narrow margins for either team to get their hands on silverware.
“We’ve been performing well recently, unfortunately like any team had a few injuries the last few weeks, but potentially Bective have too.
“We’ve talked about our squad the whole year, how strong it is, and our coach often points out there’s been over 30 boys who played for our firsts squad this year. So we massively trust up to 30, 35 players who can play, and have played so far this season.
“That’s really one thing we built as a bit of depth now. So we hope that will stand to us on Saturday, but I’m sure Bective are the same. I’m sure they have a strong squad too.
“You just really don’t know how it will go. You hope you’ll have learned from previous experiences, both teams are going to want it as much as the other team. It’s not going to matter who wants it more.
“It’s really just who can execute their skillset even slightly better or (it) might just come down to a bounce of the ball, a slight bit of luck, which often these big games can do – quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals.
“So we hope that it bounces our way, and I’m sure they’re the same. I don’t know a huge pile about them, they have a lot of firepower. We will do what we can,” he added.
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