Armagh 3rd XV 60 Newry 2nd XV 08
Armagh 3rd’s started their pursuit of the Forster Cup with an emphatic victory on a glorious afternoon at the Palace Grounds.
After a five week break, Armagh appeared a little rusty and started slowly making simple mistakes and gifting the opposition possession. However, after 10 minutes, Harry Boyd’s converted a penalty after the opposition crumbled under intense Armagh pressure. Armagh then started to put some flowing rugby together and Boyd’s cross field kick was collected by Simon Beckett who sent Adam Brennan through to score. Beckett then finished from 30 yards after some slick movement from the Armagh pack. From the restart, Armagh gathered momentum and Christopher Wallace cruised through a gap to score. Newry then came back at Armagh and forced the home team to make more errors. Further tries from Jude Parr and Rory Hanna left Armagh with a comfortable 32-0 lead at half time.
Armagh took the foot off the pedal in the second half but still managed to put together some stunning moves resulting in Wallace and Brennan scoring their second tries while Mark Laverty showed his pace to score in the corner. All credit to the Newry side who didn’t give up and their reward was a dubious penalty and then after some weak tackling by Armagh, Newry scored. With five minutes remaining Armagh composed themselves and their free flowing rugby helped Mark Curley used his agility to score in the corner. Boyd having kicked 6 out of 8 conversions missed this one as the referee blew his whistle to leave Armagh victors by 60 points to 8.
Armagh are back to their league battle next week as they travel to Monaghan but will be glad of this game to get rid of the excess Turkey as they push for promotion from Junior league six and a good run in the cup.
Seconds Ease Past Civil Service
Armagh seconds travelled to Civil Service on Saturday to play the local 1st fifteen in a conference league game. The game which was played on an excellent playing surface was a great advert for running rugby with the Armagh forwards and backs displaying great mobility and handling skills. There were some changes to the team this week with Jonny Steenson and James McCall coming into the side after returning from injury. Jonny Clarke volunteered to hook and moved in from the back row. Civil service competed well from the kick off with Armagh slow to get into the game. Some early Service pressure found Armagh defending their 22, however when ball was turned over, John Faloon broke away to score at the posts for a good try on 12 minutes. With the conversion by Matthew Steenson Armagh led 7 – 0. With both forwards and backs stepping up a gear, Freddie Cuttle sniped off the side of a ruck outside Service’s 22 and when tackled off loaded to James McCall who touched down at the posts. With the conversion by Matthew Steenson Armagh were ahead 14 – 0 on 17 minutes. On 25 minutes quick hands by Jonny Allen and Jonny Steenson put Robbie Faloon in at the corner flag for another good try. With the conversion by Matthew Steenson, Armagh were cruising at 21 – 0. Th e Armagh forwards with Bassett, McNeice and McCall prominent, were playing their part in the game by providing quick ball for the backs. Another Sniping run by Cuttle from deep in the Armagh half led to another converted try by John Faloon to bring the half time score to 28 – 0. On the restart, Civil Service brought play up to Armagh’s 22, however with good work at the breakdown, defence was turned into attack which ended up with John Faloon getting his hat trick try. With the added points Armagh led 35 – 0. Another try quickly followed after James McCall broke clear 30 metres out 40 – 0. Josh Morton scored the last try after some generosity by John Faloon. Converted by Matthew Steenson, the final score was Armagh 47, Civil service 0. This was a very good all round team performance with the man of the match award going to an excellent John Faloon.
