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Armagh travelled to Bangor on Saturday to play the local seconds in a Junior 1 league fixture with confidence high after gaining maximum points from their two previous outings.
Straight from the kick off Armagh’s forwards took play deep into the Bangor half. After a lineout and several pick and drives Andrew Knipe dived over at the posts to touch down on 5 minutes. The try was converted by Simon Cuttle to give Armagh an early 07–0 lead.
Bangor were visibly taken aback by Armagh’s whirlwind start but were determined to impose themselves on the game. This resulted in a battle between Armagh and the heavy Bangor forwards. Although having to battle harder for possession, the next 25 minutes were spent in the Bangor half with several try scoring opportunities being spurned due to wrong options and mistimed passes 15 metres out.
At the half time whistle Armagh were disappointed not to be more points ahead and the basis of the team talk was for the players to impose themselves when in try scoring positions. The second half started with some Bangor Pressure on the half way line. The Bangor fullback who had a fine game throughout, was now using the advantage of the breeze to kick the ball deep into the Armagh 22 at every opportunity.
This resulted in Armagh backs having to run the ball out and when a pass was dropped, the ball was picked up by the Bangor number 13 who touched down at the posts. With the successful conversion the score was tied at 07-07. Worse was to follow when Bangor turned over ball from the Armagh forwards in the Bangor 22 and when an overlap was created out wide the Bangor fullback sauntered over at the posts.
With the try converted Bangor now found themselves 14–07 ahead. Armagh knew that in order to salvage anything from this game they needed to work their way into the Bangor half and put points on the board as soon as possible. With Brian Bassett now leading the forward charges, several phases later the halfbacks moved the ball to Richard Shilliday who gave Steven Morton a flat pass 25 metres out.
Steven stepped inside his marker to run in a good try near the posts. Cuttle converted to tie the scores again at 14–14 with 10 minutes remaining. This score shocked Bangor and they were now determined to hit back and clinch the match with a winning score. Their fullback after missing a long range penalty brought play into Armagh’s 22 where the game was played out with Armagh having to endure a spell of pressure with several 5 metre scrums.
This was a fine defensive effort from both forwards and backs and when the referee blew for fulltime, Armagh had mixed emotions as everyone realised this was a game which could have been won.
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