Armagh launched their 2012-13 season with a trip to Deramore Park to play
\nBelfast Harlequins in the Ulster Senior League. Last season saw Armagh beat
\nHarlequins when they travelled to The Palace Grounds. To repeat this result,
\nwith an early season away fixture, however, posed a significant hurdle,
\nselection wise, especially since the Armagh squad was weakened due to the
\noverlapping cricket demands not to mention the ‘Black Saturday’ commitments.<\/p>\n
The playing conditions were perfect at Deramore with a slight
\nbreeze favouring the visitors at the kick-off. From the kick-off it was
\nimmediately evident that Armagh were the more resolute side and when
\nout-half Richard Reaney landed a penalty after seven minutes the home side
\nappeared to flag. The first half saw Armagh continue to attack from all
\nphases of the game only the odd handling error saved the Harlequins from
\nhaving more points against them by the break.<\/p>\n
Five minutes into the second half saw Colin Atkinson lift a ball
\nfrom the base of a ruck and break down the right wing. John Faloon was on
\nhis shoulder in support and was able to touch down a fine try in the right
\ncorner. The conversion, while very high appeared to go wide of the posts.
\nThe body language of the home team appeared to illustrate that they were far
\nfrom happy with the situation. However, this languid attitude disappeared in
\nthe final five minutes of the game when the Belfast side appeared to finally
\nget into gear and started to attack the Armagh line from all angles. Only
\nfor the resolute defence from the Armagh back row especially from ‘man of
\nthe match’ James McCall and James Morton the result could have been tighter.<\/p>\n
While one swallow never makes a summer, to travel to Belfast and
\ndefeat a team two leagues above Armagh two seasons in succession is, by no
\nmeans insignificant. To stand close to the line and hear the team
\ncommunication throughout the game illustrated just how the redesigned
\ncoaching structure is beginning to take shape. This win was not due to any
\nparticular individual but was primarily down to a comprehensive team effort
\nwhich was seen to be lacking on occasions last season. <\/p>\n
Next Saturday’s sees Armagh entertain Queens University at the Palace
\nGrounds and this will, no doubt, be a very keenly fought fixture. It was
\nrewarding to hear the Armagh coaches talk of the latest win being totally
\ndue to a comprehensive team effort and not in any way the result of any sole
\nindividual. Rugby is, after all, a team sport and only teams can win!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Armagh launched their 2012-13 season with a trip to Deramore Park to play Belfast Harlequins in the Ulster Senior League. Last season saw Armagh beat Harlequins when they travelled to The Palace Grounds. To repeat this result, with an early season away fixture, however, posed a significant hurdle, selection wise, especially since the Armagh squad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17191,5774,5816,3959],"class_list":["post-31604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armagh","tag-armagh","tag-city","tag-rfc","tag-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31604","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=31604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31606,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31604\/revisions\/31606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}