On Saturday Armagh Power NI 3rdxv hosted a strong Randalstown 2ndxv, with
conditions near perfect the home side kicked off. With the chase Stuart
McMahon and Paul Cully made 2 great tackles and the opposition lost the ball
forward. The scrum that followed Randalstowns defence held strong and they
turned the ball over via a knock on. From this scrum the powerful front row
of Jason McMahon, James Knox and Andrew Fletcher won the ball against the
head and Captain Chris Wallace picked from the scrum, beat town’s 6 and
scored left of the posts. The conversion was missed.
Randalstown kicked off and Armagh, through outhalf Andy Knipe, cleared the
ball deep into the visitors ’22’. From here Armagh stole the line out and
drove toward the line only being held out by some tough defence. ‘Town’
managed to hold out and clear their lines, from the line out Armagh launched
another set of attacks with centres Laverty and Straghan hitting some hard
lines breaking the gain line letting the back row of Stanley Hamilton, Sam
Knipe and Chris Wallace to cause problems out wide. Following some good work
scrum half David Spratt off the back of the scrum Full Back Eddie Irwin
dotted down under the posts. The conversion was missed. 10 – 0 half time
Armagh Power NI received the kick off and began to work back up the pitch
again, but with a renewed vigour Randalstown turned the ball over and made
good ground through their centres and gained a penalty for hands in at the
ruck. Their Full Back stepped up and knocked the kick over to bring the
score back to 10 – 3. Armagh kicked off and again Randalstown worked hard
and got back to a scoring position but winger Adam Brennan made a great
cover tackle, but at this ruck Armagh were again found to have hands in at
the ruck. The resultant penalty was kicked to make the score 10 – 6. From
the next kick off Armagh woke up and made some great tackles to get the ball
back in hand with Lewis Morton working hard at the break down. With a great
run from prop McMahon Armagh got to the line but lost the ball forward and
the visitors cleared their lines. From this line out Chris Wallace stole the
line out and the pack formed a maul driving inroads towards the line, with
good control Stanley Hamilton claimed the try. The conversion was missed. 15
– 6.
Randalstown weren’t done yet and from the kick off they immediately
gathered the ball and their winger scored out wide with the conversion taken
the score was brought back to 15 – 13. Armagh had to fight their way back up
the pitch in the last moments of the game and eventually got themselves into
an attacking position and with the line out and next ruck Andrew Fletcher
powered his way over near the posts, Hamilton converted. With the final
plays of the game Armagh cleared the ball and the ref blew the final whistle
and Armagh definitely felt relived having not played at their best and
letting the opposition live off their mistakes. But with this young side
there is much more to come.
