Photo by Ken Redpath
City of Armagh 2nd XV
City of Armagh Seconds travelled to Gibson park to play Malone 2s in the Ulster 2nd XV League on Saturday past. Playing into the stiff breeze and receiving the ball from the kick off, an Armagh forward infringed at the ensuing ruck.
By putting a squeeze on the Malone eight in the following scrum, it was evident even at this stage Armagh had the upper hand through the power of Bassett, Hill and Clarke. Shortly after, the Malone out half converted a penalty on 8 minutes to give Malone an early 03–0 lead.
By now Armagh were starting to get into the game with both forwards and backs combining to take play into the Malone half. Jonny Allen took play out wide to link with Robbie Faloon who showed great pace added with some elusive running to beat two defenders and touch down out wide. Matthew Steenson missed the conversion but added a penalty on 25 minutes to give Armagh a lead of 08–05.
Using the strong breeze Malone took play back into the Armagh Half and some indiscipline by Armagh give Malone two relatively easy penalties to leave the score 9-8 to Malone at half time. With the team half time talk focusing on using the wind to play to the corners, Armagh kicked off determined to regain the lead.
The backline lead by Simon Cuttle and Jonny Allen were starting to make inroads through the Malone defence. Willy Hill took a pass at pace to break through the Malone back line and sprint 30 metres to touch down at the posts. With the conversion by Steenson, Armagh were now 09-15 ahead. With clever use of the boot by Cuttle, Steenson and Faloon Armagh were able to keep Malone pinned deep in their own half.
Another try followed on 53 minutes after some great inter passing by both forwards and backs led to a good try by Jonny Allen who touched out midway out. With the conversion added by Steenson, Armagh had a healthy lead of 09-22. Malone who had always looked dangerous, snapped up the ball from the restart after a lapse in Armagh concentration to score close to the posts. This brought the score to 16-22 and was a reminder to the visitors that the game was far from over.
After regaining territorial advantage, Robert Straghan who was having a great game in the centre, made another fine line break to put winger Josh Morton in for a good try at the corner flag. Steenson missed the difficult conversion to leave the score 16-27 to Armagh.
More superb handling by the backs led to a second try for Faloon who made the conversion easy for Steenson by touching down at the posts. With a final score of 16-36, this was a very good all round team performance. |
