03rd December 2007

Armagh suffered another severe blow to their hopes of league leadership when they were defeated at Ballymoney on Saturday. They did rescue one bonus point from the match but that was not nearly enough.

The weather dictated matters entirely on Saturday. The strong, blustery, wind coupled with intermittent heavy downpours favoured the home side in the first half. They readily accepted the advantage to the point of kicking five penalties and scoring a converted try to give them a 22-0 half-time lead.

Armagh have rarely, in recent times, had to face such a formidable second half task. They did respond well with three well constructed tries. Sadly, all were unconverted. Had all of the conversions been good and had a penalty been kicked Armagh could have squeezed a victory, but at least they came away with a single point.

The Ballymoney place-kicker was helped not only by the wind but also by easier kicking positions.

When Armagh were awarded their penalties there was a natural tendency to utilize the touch-line in their desperate attempt to narrow the gap.

Full-back Johnny Steenson made a welcome return with Chris Black retaining his position at out-half. In the pack James Morton moved into the second row to partner Davy Martin while Joe Clarke came into the back row.

Ballymoney opened the scoring with a penalty in the first ten minutes but Armagh returned to attack well and showed that they could dominate the set pieces at this stage of the match. After some time in the Ballymoney 22 scrum-half Andy Winder made a good dart for the line but a penalty resulted and Armagh elected to choose the scrum option but sadly to no result as Ballymoney turned over the possession and cleared their line.

In the process of clearing their line Ballymoney managed to gain two more penalties in quick succession to put them 09-0 ahead. They had a good try-scoring opportunity when their left winner was sent clear and unmarked but he failed to get in at the corner. Armagh were attacking well but handling errors in the backs failed to lead to any points.

From a Ballymoney scrum they picked up and went in for a try at the posts, the easy conversion made the score 16-0. Another penalty followed on 30 minutes to bring the score to 19-0. Further trouble followed when centre Peter Elliot was yellow carded. Eventually Ballymoney missed a penalty kick to the surprise of all on the touch-line. The Ballymoney kicker, however, landed one just before the half-time break to bring the score to 22-0.

The second half started with an Armagh penalty going wide. Stuart Lester was replaced by Alistair Redpath and Peter Elliot moved to the left wing. Joe Clarke was yellow carded and Redpath made a good run down the wing.

The pressure on the home side was intensified when they had a second row sent off for receiving a second yellow card.

Their out-half also got a yellow and was sent to the side-line. Armagh put in a great attack down the right wing but the referee ruled that the ball was not grounded.

However, from the resultant scrum, Winder gave a quick pass to Elliot to score. Yet again the try was not converted so Armagh had started their fight back at 22-05. In the same corner Winder went over for a try. This time there was controversy over the conversion with the touch-judges disagreeing. The referee chose to agree with the home official and ruled the kick to be wide.

This brought the score to 22-10. The final try of the afternoon fell to Johnny Allen who had been very active all afternoon. Yet again no conversion resulted leaving the final score at 22-15. The carding of players made things difficult for both sides but the Armagh scrum did have a good afternoon with Eddie Orr making constant good ground.

A home fixture and presuming an improvement in match weather next Saturday should see Armagh through their Junior Cup game with Enniskillen. This competition has been messed up this season. Instead of the old fashioned knock-out style, the Ulster Branch have divided the competing clubs into pools with winner and runners-up to emerge later in the season for play-offs.

However, Academy withdrew from the Armagh pool and Ards pulled out recently. This has left Armagh to play Enniskillen at home and Harlequins 2 nd’XV away in March. The Ulster Branch has decreed that no runner up will emerge from a three team pool. So Armagh must win both these matches to qualify.