Saturday saw Armagh make the long trek south to Musgrave Park, Cork, to play their first game in the Ulster Bank League against Sunday’s Well. The conditions were peculiar to say the least; with the ground being regularly used for the Munster senior side’s games, it was maintained to a fabulous standard. The playing surface was literally like lounge carpet, albeit a very, very slippery carpet! The weather forecast spelt heavy and continuous rain all day, for once, it was accurate to a tee!
With the rain pelting down Armagh kicked-off and after only 3 minutes play they were 0-3 up after James McBriar kicked a penalty after the ‘Wells defenders were seen to stray off-side. This was repeated when the home backs were caught straying off-side and again McBriar landed the kick to put Armagh 0-6 ahead.
The wet, slippery conditions meant that the lighter Armagh forwards found themselves having to work hard to control the set pieces.
The visiting backs also struggled with the heavy rain when two fine breaks failed to put points on the board. Indeed, after 25 minutes play Armagh’s right-winger, Andrew Willis, was subbed off with a blood injury & replaced by Richard Reaney. Sunday’s Well were successful with two penalties and at half-time the score was 6-6.
If anything, the rain got even heavier in the second half and this contributed to the excessive number of handling errors made by both sides. The game was well into the last quarter when Armagh’s centre, Atkinson, made a fine kick into the ‘Wells 22. The resultant lineout was turned over and Armagh launched a series of multi phase attacks, which ended with Matthew Irwin touching down near the corner. The referee, however, judged the ball to have been ‘held up’ and the try was disallowed. As the clock ran down a draw seemed to be the inevitable result when Armagh were penalized for a rucking offence just inside their own half. Up stepped the young ‘Wells’ out half, O’Riordan. His kick cleared the crossbar with only half a metre to spare, but over it went bringing the score to 9-6. The referee blew the final whistle and the game ended with Armagh losing their first game in the Ulster bank league. The Armagh team were, obviously, disappointed, as they were the only side that appeared to come close to scoring a try but they had secured a bonus point, which is always better than no points.
