22nd October 2007

Alan Whitcroft converted to make the score 07-0. Some of the Armagh off-loading was careless & resulted in a great number of knock-ons throughout the game. Indeed a phase of the first half showed Armagh tackling to be half-hearted.

Alan Whitcroft played a sound game with his accurate place kicking and sound touch clearances.

Queens were awarded two penalties in front of the Armagh posts but chose to kick for the line-out option from both and failed to score from either.

If they had managed to put points on to the score board at this stage the game could have ended very differently! Instead 15 minutes into the game saw flanker, Chris Wallace make a break from the base of a ruck and, after a storming 35 metre run, scored under the posts. Whitcroft converted to make the score 14-0.

The Armagh no. 8 Eddie Orr also showed his speed when he made a break from a scrum but failed to score. Five minutes later saw Chris Wallace score a carbon copy of his previous try. This was converted by Whitcroft to bring the score to 21-0.

The Queens pack were, by this stage, beginning to falter. Their hooker had to leave the field for attention when he sustained a nasty wound to his forehead.

It was Andrew Morton’s turn to score when he touched down under the Queen’s posts after an Armagh maul had rolled from the Queen’s 22 metre line. Whitcroft converted again to make the half-time score 28-05.

The second half saw the visitors awarded a series of penalties but yet again failed to put any points on the board. The Queens front row sustained a back injury but elected to play on. Unopposed scrums were then called by the referee. The home side were plagued by a series of handling errors and we even lost two of our own line-outs!

There was no scoring until well into the second half when Johnny Allen made one of his famed runs and off-loaded the ball to Richard Shilliday who scored a fine try. This was converted by Whitcroft to bring the score to 35-0.

The Queens out-half then scored a fine try under the Armagh posts but failed to convert. This brought the score to 35-5. Johnny Allen then put in a fine run to put the score to 40-5. The final try was scored by prop Jason McMaghon. Whitcroft failed to convert either of these tries to leave the score at 45-05.