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On a pitch in East Belfast which looked more like an Olympic Pool than a rugby pitch great credit must go to both sides for playing the fixture and to the referee for allowing the game to go ahead. After an off colour performance last time out Armagh were seeking to keep control of the League, and did so with a very convincing performance which made light of the awful conditions.
Armagh started well and dominated the first half. An early John Faloon break looked like it would yield a score for Simon Cuttle, however John offloaded instead to Rory Hanna who went over for the games first try. Armagh continued to threaten with ball in hand, and were helped by CIs continued indecisiveness at centre as Armagh’s next 2 scores came from pressure applied after opposition mistakes, in each case with a good old fashioned kick and chase leading to scores for Eddie Irwin and Adam Gowring.
Both these were converted, but despite great breaks from Con Oliver and Eddie again, Armagh did not score until just before the half time whistle when some excellent linking play between forwards and backs saw Sam Shepherd take a great line in attack and release Phil McAlister for a simple run in behind the posts. Another conversion left the half time score at 0-26 in Armagh’s favour, and CI wondering how they could stop the onslaught.
The second half started in much the same manner as the first, as great 15 man rugby saw John Falloon cruise in from 35 yards for the best team score of the day. Being so far ahead Armagh relaxed slightly, giving encouragement to CI, however despite 10 minutes of sustained pressure, the Belfast side were unable to break through.
Armagh then showed their clinical side as their first attacking opportunity in some time led to Stephen Morton and Sam Shepherd combining to send Phil McAlister on his way from 55 metres out, an opportunity Phil gratefully accepted to increase his lead in the Club Try Scoring competition for this season.
As a fitting finale to the game, ambition from deep within Armagh’s 22 saw the ball reach Richard Shilliday who galloped down the touchline to score in the corner from a long way out, (Richard claimed afterwards to have gone some 80 metres to score, but no-one has ever seen him run that far in a straight line so his claim has been discounted).
With the conversion missed the final score was 0-45 in favour of Armagh, and a fine performance in preparation for next weeks League decider at the Palace against Ballynahinch.
With some fine individual performances and excellent interplay between the backs and forwards, (to say nothing of Andy Morton’s exceptional juggling skills), allied to a great team spirit as evidenced by the mud plunging competition on the field after the final whistle, Armagh 2nds have their destiny in their own hands and it is hoped that a big crowd will come and give them the support they richly deserve next Saturday. |
