04th December 2007

Mark Laverty’s men travelled to Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast, to take on Instonians 3rd XV, who were sitting in 2nd place in the league above Armagh in the preliminary round of the Crawford Cup. This fixture gave the 2’s a chance to play outside the league fixtures against a team who made the semi-finals of the cup last season.

The 2nds were focused and keen to make amends for the slip up at Rainey last week. Armagh won the toss and wisely chose to play with the strong wind blowing into the bottom right hand corner of the pitch.

Straight from the kick off Armagh turned Inst. over and attacked up the middle through centre Phil McAllister.

Steven Auld at scrum-half, who proved to be a thorn in the side of the Inst back row the whole game, broke from the back of a ruck and got behind the defence.

Out-half Sam Sheppard received quick ball and No. 6 Rory Hannah hit a great line at pace to slice through a desperate defence to hit the ‘Bullocking’ Con Oliver, who powered his way over for the opening try. Sheppard added the extras.

Armagh returned the kick off and kept inst pinned in their own half, before Auld broke again and outpaced the defence and looked certain to be in for a great individual try only to be caught by a swinging Arm more suitable to a WWE wrestling bout. The Inst player was lucky to stay on the pitch and Armagh sensibly opted for the three points duly converted by Sheppard in his own ‘unique’ style to give Armagh a 10–0 lead.

Inst. rallied again but a strong Armagh defence epitomized by some big hits from Brian Basset and Phil McAllister forced turn over’s and with Auld’s earlier sniping gave the inside backs some room to move the ball wide to Andy Brady who made a good break into the left corner and an outrageous dummy by Auld saw him squeeze in at the corner to give Armagh a 15 point lead.

Armagh had one last attack from deep before half time with great interplay between Simon Cuttle and Andy Knipe put Captain Mark ‘Lav’ into space on the halfway line and faced with a two-on-1 with only the full-back to beat. Unfortunately, the oval shaped ball doesn’t always go to hand and Inst were let off and Armagh went into the break a deserved 15 points up.

However, now it was the home side's turn to use the wind. Armagh had to play smart and keep control of the ball. Inst. rallied and straight away got a penalty. This brought a new found belief to the home team who with their strong rolling maul began to fight back into the game.

Pinning Armagh back in their own half the Inst backs broke through and scored a great try to bring the score back to 15 – 08. Armagh could not afford to ride their lead out and some strong running from Phil Hill and Rick Shilliday brought Armagh into the Inst 22 were they did not leave until they got another 3 points courtesy of Sheppard.

The lead was now just at ten points and Inst. were smarty using the wind.

Armagh knew they needed more points. Another trade mark break from Auld brought Armagh back into the Inst. half, however, it was to proved to be his last after an illegal and late tackle that only the ref. missed.

Armagh now down to 14 men for the last 20 minutes regrouped and moved wing Knipe to scrum-half who played a smart game plan and kept the ball up front with Basset and Shilliday picking and going and the industrious Stephen Morton securing ball and turning Inst over.

Armagh worked hard and got their reward with a great team effort with Basset going over from close range. Sheppard added the extras to make it 25–08.

Inst. never gave up and to their credit scored two more unconverted tries to leave the final score at 25 -18. All the spectators agreed that they had witness a great flowing clean game of rugby and that Armagh were the hungrier and better team.

A great scalp for the 2nds who are now proving that they can play structured rugby and take on teams and play out victories. Armagh 2nds are now back to the league this weekend with a crucial home game against Carrick and will be looking for revenge for the narrow defeat at the start of the season.