Armagh made the long trip north to Limavady with a degree of tension. The whole squad knew that they had underperformed in the last two fixtures. Against Coleraine they had shown sporadic flashes of their flair but were well and truly overpowered in the closing minutes of the game. Against Clogher, however, they were humiliated by the way Clogher could pin them in their own half in the Palace Grounds for virtually the whole eighty minutes of a game. Was it all down to fixture fatigue or had the team run out of pace? The expressions on the guy’s faces after the Clogher debacle said a lot. They still retained the Armagh resolution and the will to play their particular style of game but they were absolutely out on their feet. To ask a team to play six games in eighteen days is after all a hell of an ask! The feeling in the team was that all they needed was a clear week to rest and they would be back.
The game kicked off in near perfect conditions with a stiff breeze favouring the Armagh side. In under four minutes play some beautiful handling saw the visitors touch down in the left corner. Armagh emphatically demonstrated that they were back on form! Steenson’s conversion took into account the tricky breeze and notched up the extra two points. After the restart Armagh launched another attack but a miss judged pass robbed Matty Irwin of another try. The Limavady backs strayed off side and were penalized in front of their posts. Rather than take the certain three points Armagh kicked for touch but the pressure on Limavady was eased when an Armagh forward knocked on. Armagh resumed the pressure after ten minutes play when centre, Colin Atkinson, scored in the left corner. Yet again Steenson landed a difficult conversion. Another fine try followed when Andrew Willis touched down in the same spot some ten minutes later. Again Steenson converted bring the score to 0-21 after only twenty one minutes play.
Limavady, responded with a series of pick and drive movements which resulted in a try in the left corner. The conversion went wide to bring the score to 5-21. Armagh’s positive response was bring the game right back to themselves when Andrew Willis scored again in the left corner. This time the conversion went just wide but at the half time whistle Armagh had brought the score to 5-26 and the bonus point was secured!
The second half kicked off with the Armagh team renewing the pressure as Colin Atkinson ran in another try. This was converted to put the score at 5-33. Armagh now appeared to lift the pressure and their scrum half was able to evade some half-hearted tackling which resulted in letting the capable Limavady pack gain confidence as they now appeared to camp inside the Armagh 22. The Limavady side resorted to their familiar and effective pick and driving pattern of play. Again, this resulted in a try just to the left of the Armagh posts. The conversion went wide to bring the score to 10-33. In the dying minutes of the game Armagh’s winger, Andrew Willis scored another try but the wind took the conversion wide. The referee blew the whistle early to leave final score was 10-38.
Certainly the Armagh side showed a much more convincing side to their game than the nail-biting finish shown when Limavady travelled to the palace Grounds fixture when the final score was 32-25. Also the Towns cup semi-final defeat is now history. The team came through this fixture intact and with no injuries. However, Wednesday evening will tell another tale when Clogher travel back tom Armagh for the penultimate league game. Can Armagh pull a special performance out of the bag and show Clogher who really is the better side!
