Photos by Ken Redpath
Harry Doyle makes a break for City of Armagh 1st XV towards the Malone line
Following their narrow defeat against Ballymena on Wednesday evening, City of Armagh 1st XV travelled to Gibson Park on Saturday to play their first away fixture in the Ulster League.
Armagh, having won only one of their Ulster League fixtures were, nevertheless, confident of putting on a creditable performance. The last time our side faced famous rugby names like Ballymena, Instonians and even Ards in the late nineties they were consistently suffering defeats of 60+ points or even worse!
Prior to the kick off both teams observed a minute’s silence in respect for the four miners who lost their lives in the recent Welsh pit disaster.
The game kicked off with a stiffish breeze at the backs of the Malone side. After only three minutes play the home right-winger, Irvine, scored when the City of Armagh team failed to respond to a rampant set of Malone backs.
This was converted to put the first points on the board at 07-0.
Malone were penalized for straying off-side and James McBriar brought the score back to 07-03.
The gap was widened again when the Malone backs scythed through a lacklustre defence to let a Malone centre score under the Armagh posts. The conversion brought the score to 14-03.
The Armagh position appeared all the more difficult when, two minutes later, Armagh’s Colin Atkinson was sin-binned for hands in a ruck. To add to the plight Malone’s out-half scored under the posts and later converted to put the scoreline at 21-03.
Suddenly the score took on an ominous tone. Were we staring a 60+ point’s defeat in the face similar to that of the old days? This nightmare must have figured large in the team talk of coach Andy Hughes during his half-time team talk.
Mark Riddell makes a break for City of Armagh 1st XV against Malone
Certainly, the Armagh team kicked of into the second half with a renewed vigour but this was halted, temporarily, when they were penalized for over exuberance in the first ruck of the half. Another three points did not really dent the Armagh pride but a 24-3 score line made a very steep hill to climb indeed.
Steep indeed it was but the Armagh side is made of stern stuff and a storming run from young flanker, Riddell, sent the ball across the team to winger, Irwin, who touched down in the left corner. The breeze carried the conversion wide but from the restart the Armagh full-back, Steenson, battered his way through to touch down just left of the posts.
Again the conversion went wide but suddenly Armagh were in contention with the score line at 24-13. Despite a Malone penalty adding a further 3 points on to the board, the visitors were in contention. This was confirmed when James McBriar sold a beautiful dummy to his opposite number and forced his way over for a try under the posts which he converted to narrow the score to 27-20.
Could Armagh continue with this resurgent form? A penalty against Malone for not releasing closed the gap even more to 27-23. Now a losing bonus point looked a possibility at worst if the form could be maintained.
This dream was short-lived, however, when the Malone flanker, Chapman, burst through a tiring defence and scored at the posts. The conversion widened the score to 34-23. The dream worsened to a nightmare when the visitors were penalised for straying off side just before the final whistle. The Malone out half landing the kick to end the game at 37-23.
This result now puts Armagh on an even points tally with their neighbours, Banbridge. Both teams have played 4 won 1 lost 3. Banbridge having a better point’s difference of +27 to Armagh’s –8. This all makes next Saturday’s fixture when Armagh travel away to Banbridge the more interesting. Local derby's such as this seldom fail to provide spectacular rugby. |
