Led by captain James Ferguson, the team is determined to avenge that loss. Ferguson, who lined out in the centre during the 2023 final, has been a mainstay in the number 13 jersey this season.
Ferguson emphasised their single-minded focus on the final: "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. We’ve tried our best to not really think about it and get through the latest league games before this. But it’s always in the back of your mind that the final is coming up. It’s nice to now put the league aside for a week and concentrate on this."
Enniskillen has faced diverse opposition throughout the competition, including teams from Connacht and Leinster. Ferguson enjoys this variety, "This competition in particular, I really enjoy, because it’s teams you haven’t played before, 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."
Family ties run deep within the club. Coach Alastair Keys has three sons playing on the squad, and many players have familial connections to the club. Ferguson acknowledges the strong family atmosphere. "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 his three sons play, and then another of his sons coaches as well. There are cousins in the team too, other sets of brothers, twins. It’s very much a close-knit family oriented team."
Despite the captaincy, Ferguson believes his on-field role remains largely unchanged. "Really on the pitch, it’s not much different. 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."
He recognises the significance of the occasion, "It would be amazing 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."
Enniskillen is aware of the formidable challenge presented by Bective Rangers: "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. 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."
Ferguson concludes, "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."
Enniskillen v Bective Rangers, Saturday 25 January, kick-off 2.30pm, available to watch on irishrugby+