06th February 2008

Armagh 2nd XV continued their good form when they racked up 41 unanswered points against Harlequins 4th XV on a frosty Friday night at the Palace grounds. Due to a combination of reasons Armagh were forced to make 10 changes from the team that beat Derry 2nd's the previous week in the Crawford Cup.

Quins turned up with a stronger team than the team Armagh beat 05-49 two weeks ago and this was enforced as there was no score until 15 minutes into the game.

The first score of the game was started from some individual play from 18 year old Eddie Calvin playing on the wing showing blistering pace from inside his own half, who offloaded to Chris Wallace to touch down for the opening score. Andy Knipe was successful with a difficult conversion to put the score at.07 – 0.

Quick thinking by Andy Morton, on the Quins 22, lead to a quick lineout to James Johnston who darted in over the line to make the score 12-0.

Armagh had to defend the last 10mis, of the first half, as Quins threatened to breach the Armagh line. Only some last ditch tackles from Richard Shilliday, Keith Dougan and Mark Lavery prevented certain scores leaving the half-time score at 12-0.

Armagh attacked right from the kick off in the second half. Steven Morton fielding the kick-off beat two Quins player and offloaded to 18 year old John Faloon playing in the second row who evaded three Quins players and nearly touched down after a searing fifty metre run. Only a tackle in the corner prevented a superb try.

From the resulting line-out however, Armagh’s Con Oliver turned the ball over and quick hands from Simon Cuttle and Phil McAlister put Stanley Hamilton in for a try. The conversion was missed leaving the scoreboard ticking over at 17-0 in Armagh’s favour.

Five minutes later Hamilton started a counter attack in his own half and fed Andy

Winder who scorched in, from forty metres out, to score a superb try.

A back-row move after fifty-five minutes created space for Winder again to make a thirty metre break.

He offloaded to Chris Wallace for his second try of the night, however, the conversation was missed.

Chris thought he had his hat-trick after 60mins when we hacked the ball some sixty metres down the pitch and touched down.

The referee, however, could not keep up with play and thought the ball had gone over the dead ball line, so disallowed the try.

Winder showed some great ability to beat players with sheer pace when he ran in from sixty metres, starting in his own half, touching down for his second try of the night. Knipe converted to make the score 34-0.

Space was created for Eddie Calvin to demonstrate his pace again when he ran fifty metres up the touch line to touch down under the posts for another great try. Knipe converted to make the score 41-0 to the home team.

With the result beyond doubt and the temperature dropping below freezing the referee blew the game up 15mins early to save any more blushes from the Belfast side.

The seconds remain top of their league and are aiming for a league and Crawford Cup double.