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The ‘Dream Team' played a home Buttler Shield game against a very big and experienced Ards team.
With Conor McGarvey out injured and Willie White unavailable, Armagh brought back Mark Speers and Rory Hannah. Stan Hamilton and Chris Wallace made up a very useful back row. They also welcomed back Joe Harney and Simon Cuttle into the three-quarters.
Both teams looked to dominate early on in the match and scoring chances from penalties were spurned by kickers on each side. Up front developed into a titanic battle between the larger Ards pack and the smaller, livelier, Armagh pack.
Ards held the upper-hand in the line-outs while the ‘Dream Team', through the front row of Colin Cochrane, Sam Wilson and Neil Agnew put the pressure on in the scrums. Ards main attacking ploy was from catch and drives off line-outs but resolute defence from Armagh kept them at bay.
A few beautiful breaks from Armagh centres, Nial Chapman and Simon Beckett, created scoring chances, but unfortunately, none were taken. The first half came to an end with the match scoreless. The second half continued very much the same way as the first, with both teams searching for openings. The Armagh defence was excellent, knocking down big runners coming at them time after time, while launching many counter attacks.
Two or three good scoring chances went a begging through forward passes, or knock-ons and, as the game entered the last five minutes, it looked like extra-time was a distinct possibility. However, Ards forced their way into the Armagh ‘22' and, from a five-yard line-out rumbled theor way over to open up a five point lead.
The ‘Dream Team' however, was not finished and Andy Brady chased down the kick-off to give Armagh good position in the Ards half. A drop-goal attempt led to Armagh securing ball from the kick-out. A couple of pick-up and drives let scrum-half Peter Hazelton release his three-quarters and Simon Beckett rounded his man beautifully to score wide out. Davy Nicholson kicked a monstrous conversion to give the Thirds the lead.
Ards had now to chase the game and made a mistake, allowing the Armagh backs to launch a counter-attack which resulted in Joe Harney bursting into the line between the centres to score.
Nicholson duly converted to finish the game off and give the locals a very hard fought victory. This was a tough game for Armagh and exactly what they needed at this stage of the season.
Man-of-the-match went to Rory Hannah for his non-stop work, both in defence and attack, and the ‘Dream Team' now look forward to a home quarter-final. |
