18th March 2008

Armagh progressed further in the Junior Cup last Saturday when they travelled to Belfast and hammered the Harlequin’s seconds team 0-51, scoring 7 tries and gaining a penalty try in the progress. Thus, Armagh rugby have scored 50 points on three occasions this season and on each occasion the opposition have failed to score a single point!

The win should gain Armagh a home game in the next round of the cup but, at this stage, the opposition is not settled. So the cup triple still remains a strong possibility.

Such is the strength of Armagh’s reserve squad this season that the splendid result was achieved without the luxury of fielding a full-strength side. In the back row James Morton and Joe Clarke were unavailable, this enabled Eddie Orr and Davy Martin to make the most of their opportunity. An interesting selection on the wing was Ralf Mercer who has not been back on the first fifteen for some time now. He took his try very well and had a first class game all round.

The afternoon for the early kick-off was wet and windy but the breeze was cross-field and did not affect matters to any significance. However, on a dry pitch (at the Palace Grounds, for example) and with the wealth of possession which Armagh generated the score would have been even more one-sided. True that Harlequins offered very little in opposition but Armagh did commit quite a number of handling errors.

Armagh were awarded an extra 10 metres from a penalty early on, presumably for Harlequin’s dissent but the kick went wide.

The next penalty bounced off a post then Harlequins responded by kicking their first penalty wide.

So eventually Steenson did get a penalty kick over to bring the score to 3-0. Armagh had all the early possession and territory and eventually the first try came from a Chris Black down the left wing which Ralph Mercer followed up at great pace to get the touch-down in the corner. Full-back Steenson followed with a beautiful conversion to bring the score to 10-0.

Again Harlequins were wide with a penalty in one of their few visits to the opposition’s half. Steenson made a long break and a try was just missed.

From a five metre scrum Harlequins heeled the ball but managed to lose possession. The Armagh back row followed up for David Martin to make a fine touch-down. The Steenson conversion gave Armagh a half-time lead of 0-17.

A great break by Alistair Redpath early in the second half failed to yield a try. Steven Morton came on as a replacement for Brian Bassett. Ralph Mercer made a fine break down his wing and from the position gained Johnny Allen went in for his first try.

Redpath kicked ahead from half-way and centre Allen dribbled the ball over to score his second try. This was converted to give Armagh a comfortable 0-29 lead. Johnny Allen was replaced by Simon Cuttle.

Armagh were awarded a penalty and chose to kick into the left corner. From the resulting line-out the referee awarded Armagh a penalty try which was converted by Ali Birch This was followed almost immediately by a penalty from the half-way line. Stuart Lester was held back as he made a break down his wing and from the resultant penalty kick to the corner Armagh launched one of their Catch and drive mauls.

This move has been very fruitful for Armagh all season and on this occasion Davy Martin went over for his second try of the match.

To add to their troubles Harlequins had a player yellow-carded. Winger, Lester ran across the field to link with Johnny Steenson who went in to score a try, bringing the score up to 0-46.

Steven Morton made a break and after some fine handling Steenson went in for his second try of the afternoon. All of the last three tries went unconverted so the final score was 0-51.

The Armagh scrum showed its usual superiority and succeeded in driving the opposition backwards all afternoon. Equally, the line-outs were very successful with Eddie Orr providing his usual clean touches.

All-in-all, the game provided the Armagh selectors with some unusual headaches. All the players present played so well, and with the Powerade Towns Cup final looming into the picture next Monday it is a nice dilemma to be faced with!