25th August 2007

In the third of their pre-season practice games Armagh defeated old rivals Lurgan 44-17 at The Palace Grounds last Saturday. They scored nine tries in the process. These practice games are, perhaps, more useful for team coaches than they are for spectators.

The games are generally played in a sequence of four quarters rather than two halves. Conversions are taken using drop-kicks rather than the orthodox place kick and squad substitutes are used constantly throughout the game.

In addition, the City of Armagh Rugby Club have so many new faces around the club that it becomes very difficult to follow the game.

Club coach, Colin Steenson, is using his entire squad in these games, not merely starting with the first team and adding on extra players as the game progresses. The result is that all the squad players are being given great opportunity to show their talents.

Scrum-half Andrew Winder scored the first try for Armagh when he darted down the blind side of a set scrum seven minutes into the game.

Alan Whitcroft converted to give Armagh a 07-0 lead.

Winger, Simon Cuttle put in a good run down the left wing but was stopped just short of the Lurgan line.

The next try came from a familiar source- The Armagh line-out. The scored was Phil Hill. Scrum-half winder then scored his second try when he stormed in from a scrum 20 metres out. Alistair Redpath was yellow-carded but Armagh led 17-0 at the first break.

Lurgan then took advantage of their numerical superiority to score their first try which they also converted to bring the score to 17-07. Winder, however went on to score his third try in the left corner to widen the cap.

By this stage in the game Armagh were able to control the set pieces and were able to turn the scrums very well to re-gain the put-in.

Phil McAllister scored down the right wing and Sam Shepherd added a very good conversion to end the quarter on 29-07.

Lurgan scored another try in the third quarter but the best try of this quarter, if not of the whole game, was scored by Gary Warnock when he scored following a beautiful run down the left wing.

Sam shepherd then scored a good try after some good Armagh off-loading. This was then followed by an Eddie Orr try after a good run by Alistair Redpath.

Lurgan finished off the afternoon with a last minute unconverted try to leave the score-line at 44-17.

Another practice game, albeit with a smaller squad, is arranged for Tuesday evening against Academy in Belfast. The first fifteen then have a free Saturday before getting stuck into their League campaign. It should be noted that the team has at least one fixture every week throughout the season bar one so it will be very busy!