{"id":17363,"date":"2011-10-17T09:57:39","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T09:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/?p=17363"},"modified":"2011-10-17T09:57:39","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T09:57:39","slug":"city-of-armagh-rugby-club-notes-i-xv-16-v-banbridge-i-xv-20-iii-xv-64-v-monaghan-ii-xv-6-ii-xv-6-v-banbridge-ii-xv-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/city-of-armagh-rugby-club-notes-i-xv-16-v-banbridge-i-xv-20-iii-xv-64-v-monaghan-ii-xv-6-ii-xv-6-v-banbridge-ii-xv-13\/","title":{"rendered":"City Of Armagh Rugby Club Notes: I XV 16 v Banbridge I XV 20 ~ III XV 64 v Monaghan II XV 6 & II XV 6 v Banbridge II XV 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Banbridge 20 Armagh16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday saw Armagh travelled to Rifle Park to play Banbridge in the Ulster Bank League. They will have to make the same journey next week to play Banbridge in the quarter final of the Senior Cup. Coincidentally the club\u2019s seconds were playing on the adjoining pitch in the second round of the Junior Cup!
\n\tBanbridge were still smarting from Armagh\u2019s 17-16 defeat in the Ulster League when they last visited Rifle Park. From their body language prior to the kick-off it was obvious they were keen to put their stamp on this fixture! It was Armagh who kicked off with a stiff breeze at their backs and with steady drizzle falling.
\n\tArmagh continually used the talented back line to launch a series of attacks and left-winger, Irwin, almost scored after ten minutes but was forced into touch ten metres short of the line. Shortly after this Banbridge were penalised for failing to roll away after a tackle in front of their posts. Armagh\u2019s James McBriar landed the kick to put the score to 0-3.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nFrom the restart, Banbridge backs attacked down their right wing. Armagh were penalised for failing to release the ball after a tackle. Banbridge opted for a scrum but after a number of re-settings, the referee awarded a penalty try nudging the home side 3-7 ahead. After twenty minutes play Banbridge were again penalised for going \u2018over the top\u2019 in a ruck which McBriar obliged with the kick to put the score to 7-6. Armagh continued to use their backs to good effect and their right-winger, Andrew Willis, made a spirited break but the referee judged that his touchdown was not cleanly executed and disallowed what appeared to be a fine try!
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n\tFrom the drop out a Banbridge centre broke away and Willis made a try saving tackle but failed to release the attacking player. For this infringement, the referee sent the winger to the sin-bin. Just before half time Armagh\u2019s scrum half scored an opportune try under the posts and the conversion saw Armagh lead 7-13 at the break.
\n\tImmediately after the re start followed a session of \u2018handbags\u2019 inside the home \u201822\u2019. Armagh were penalised but the referee reversed the decision due to the Banbridge retaliation!
\n\tBy this stage in the game, it was obvious that the heavy home pack was beginning to dominate but the visiting backs were superior. Indeed, the home captain, McKinstry, scored a breakaway try, which was converted bringing the score to 14-13. To add to Armagh\u2019s troubles they were penalised for \u2018breaking the bind\u2019 in a scrum. The resultant kick put the score to 17-13. With just seven minutes left on the clock the Banbridge backs were caught offside and again McBriar put another three points on the board. Just before the final whistle, an Armagh forward was found to have joined a ruck from the side. The resultant kick brought the final score to 20-16.
\n\tArmagh had to be content to go home with a losing bonus point. This is probably a fair result because, on reflection, the Banbridge side were dominant in the forward department but Armagh backs were seen to be the more dangerous. If Armagh can manage to win their home games and continue to secure bonus points they can only be optimistic of the season ahead.<\/p>\n

III XV 64 v Monaghan II XV 6<\/strong><\/p>\n

Armagh 3rd XV continued their winning ways with a dominant performance
\nagainst a strong Monaghan 2nd XV at the Palace Grounds. With Chris Wallace
\nand John Falloon returning from injuries Armagh were able to field a strong
\nside and being the only team playing at the Palace Grounds a good crowd of
\nsupporters turned out despite the blustery weather.
\nArmagh started slowly and a slippery ball led to several handling errors.
\nBut on 10 mins great work by the pack led to a break by Jude Parr who fed
\nStanley Hamilton who kicked ahead and grounded the ball by the posts and
\nthen converted for 7 points. Monaghan replied with a penalty and although
\nthey attacked strongly the Armagh defence held firm. Armagh’s second try
\ncame from Robert Straghan after good work by the centre partnership of
\nFalloon and Matthew Allen. Hamilton converted for 14-3. Monaghan attacked
\nstrongly and although they converted a penalty these were the last points
\nthey scored as Armagh ran up another 50 points unanswered. Other first half
\ntries came from Falloon and a quick tap and go from Hamilton for his second,
\nhis convertion leaving Armagh leading 26-6 at half time.
\nFrom the restart Paul Cully fed Straghan who ran from his own 10 metre line
\nleaving Monanaghan defenders in his wake and scored under the post. Again
\nHamilton converted. Good scrumaging by the dominant Armagh pack fed the back
\nline who moved the ball wide to Andy George who ran a looping run to score
\nunder the posts. Hamilton again converted. Falloon and Rory Hanna had to
\nleave the field injured while Monaghan lost one player. This did not stop
\nArmagh who ran in another four tries from Jude Parr, Chris Wallace, Jamie
\nMonaghan and Philip Hooks who converted his own with Hamilton converting the
\nother three leaving the final score 64-6 to Armagh.
\nArmagh will hope to continue their winning start to the season with a tough
\naway game next Saturday against Ballymoney.<\/p>\n

II XV 6 v Banbridge II XV 13<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Armagh 2nd xv played their Banbridge counterparts at Rifle park on Saturday in the second round of the Junior cup. Despite winning comfortably in the 2nd xv league a few weeks earlier, Armagh struggled to impose themselves during the first half when they had the advantage of a stiff breeze. The Armagh scrum had Banbridge in reverse with several balls taken against the head, however the only reward was a penalty bt Mathew Steenson and an audacious drop goal by Simon Cuttle to give Armagh a halftime lead of 6 \u2013 0. On the restart, Banbridge came more into the game and started to pressurise the Armagh defence. On 60 minutes, some slack defence allowed Banbridge in for a score at the posts and with the simple conversion, put them into the lead 7-6. Armagh had difficulty establishing any territorial advantage and tried to play from too deep in their own half. The game petered out with Banbridge accepting 2 penalty opportunities to bring the score to 13 \u2013 6. Armagh were very sluggish throughout out this game, a complete reverse from the earlier league game when they played some exciting rugby. The loss of 2 players to yellow cards late in the game didn\u2019t help the team\u2019s cause \u2013 a game best forgotten and a disappointing exit in the junior cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Banbridge 20 Armagh16 Saturday saw Armagh travelled to Rifle Park to play Banbridge in the Ulster Bank League. They will have to make the same journey next week to play Banbridge in the quarter final of the Senior Cup. Coincidentally the club\u2019s seconds were playing on the adjoining pitch in the second round of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,189,1039],"tags":[6752,17191,17209,5774,4719,4276,4277,17272,5749,3959,4281],"class_list":["post-17363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armagh","category-banbridge","category-monaghan","tag-6752","tag-armagh","tag-banbridge","tag-city","tag-club","tag-ii","tag-iii","tag-monaghan","tag-of","tag-rugby","tag-xv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}