|
|
| Armagh (48) vs Limavady (0) |
|
14th September 2009
|
| |
A cloudless and very warm day, saw the launch of the new Armagh kit, and if nerves at showcasing the shirts ha been forecast, the attitude from the previous two matches had carried over and confidence was high.From the offset Armagh attacked well but scrappy handling allowed Limavady to dictate the first period of the game. As the result of errors made at the back of the scrum and in the ruck, Armagh gave away unnecessary penalties.
In spite of giving Limavady most of the early ground, Armagh defended very well. Several attacks by the visiting team then had the Armagh forwards on the back foot. The scrum collapsed and again Armagh were playing defensive rugby. Maybe it was the missing Johnny Steenson and the reformed back row, but up until this point Armagh did not seem to be gelling as a team.
It was then that the pack came into their own and some excellent work in the forwards allowed the ruck to advance towards the oppositions 22. Some more excellent forward play saw a pod of players cross the line and Captain James Morton arose as the try scorer.
Without Steenson's boot it was to Adam Gowing that Armagh turned to for their kicks. But the angle of the kick was too severe for even his kicking skills and the shot was just wide. The supporters were naturally happy about this passage of play and the energy from them seem to calm the home team down.
At the restart the forwards dominated the play with strong lineouts, and well defined scrums, but this did not translate into the backs. Handling errors and poor passing continued to plague the wings and centres and movement was slow. Frustration was being to show in both sides and tempers were raised for a short time. Thankfully this did not disrupt the flow of the play and Armagh were again on the attack.
It was down to the forwards to continue the bulk of the play and they did so with some excellent ball being released to the wings. This allowed Adam to go over for his first try of the game and with his first conversion Armagh were in a comfortable 12-0 lead.
This seemed to allow Armagh to relax into their way of playing and they calmed down to allow freedom of movement to the ball carriers. But the underlying ball handling errors were never far from the surface and they seemed to rear their ugly heads at the wrong time.
More froward domination followed and first fifteen stalwart Joe Clarke battled through Limavady tackles to make it to the line and score. Perfectly positioned it made the kicking job for Adam Gowing to make it 19-0.
Another fine phase of play saw the mistakes come from Limavady for a change and a rare penalty in front of the posts was duly slotted over by Adam.
But frustrations had run higher still and a skirmish broke out after the restart. This unfortunate action saw the referee make his decision and left Andrew Willis walking to the side lines to the sin bin for the first ten minutes of the second half.
The second half saw Armagh playing into the welcome September sun, and most thought this would be a problem for the high balls. Thankfully this was not to be the case. Andrew Winder had swapped his full back position for a wing to allow returning Armagh player Stuart Lester onto the field.
The re-jigged back row line caused more upset and another passage of play side followed with more handling errors and bad passing. However, Armagh were proving that they were the better side even if the arm of the referee seemed to be pointing in the opposite direction.
It was at this stage that Eddie Irwin finally got the chance to run and run he did putting the ball straight round the side and behind the posts. This made the conversion for Gowing very simple.
Limavady still had more in the tank and forced Armagh back into their own 22 for some imaginative play. Along with solid work in both their own scrum and line-out ball, Limavady kept Armagh at bay but could not convert the play into points.
At this stage Armagh finally clicked together as a well oiled team and the passing came into its own allowing Leigh Manu to show his skills and score under the posts. With the slight breeze behind Gowing was able to duly score the conversion.
The flow of Armagh's game came into it's own at this late stage of the game and proved that the young side has more to learn about working with each other than the game. But there was more t up the sleeves of the Armagh team and they made slick work of the passing to allow Stuart over for his first try of the season.
But the show was not over by any means and several well worked passages of play led to some more excellent passing saw Gowing over for his second try of the game, and with the concluding kick of the game Adam took his points tally to 23 out of the 48 victory.
Coach Andy Hughes and his back room staff have kinks to work out as any team have to be able to move forward and improve on the mistakes that have crept into the game. Along with new rule changes and amendments to the ELV's of last season this will be no easy task but Hughes is confident that results can be achieved.
There is only one week for these kinks to be tried and ironed out as Armagh travel to Ballymoney for their next league encounter. A bus will be leaving the club for all those supporters who wish to come along. |
|
