Armoy 29 Ballymena select 38
Positives to be taken from evenly contested friendly loss.
Armoy opened their account for the season with a friendly fixture against a younger and fitter Ballymena select. It was ultimately the youth and fitness factors that bore fruit for the Braid men as Armoy had lead for 3/4 of the match. Despite trys by Jamie Liken, Enda Casey in the first half and Gareth Wright, Neil Porterfield and Micky MGaughey in the second half the men from Lime Park lost the match 29-38 with Ballymena scoring most of their points in the last 20 minutes virtue of Armoy being reduced to 14 men for a 10 minute spell in which their very pacey backs exploited the spec to run in 3 trys.
Despite the fixture being a friendly there were some very big tackles being made by both teams in a match played for the most part in a good spirit. Undoubtedly there will be a few sore bodies on Sunday.
Armoy opened their account for the season with a friendly fixture against a younger and fitter Ballymena select. It was ultimately the youth and fitness factors that bore fruit for the Braid men as Armoy had lead for 3/4 of the match. Despite trys by Jamie Liken, Enda Casey in the first half and Gareth Wright, Neil Porterfield and Micky MGaughey in the second half the men from Lime Park lost the match 29-38 with Ballymena scoring most of their points in the last 20 minutes virtue of Armoy being reduced to 14 men for a 10 minute spell in which their very pacey backs exploited the spec to run in 3 trys.
Despite the fixture being a friendly there were some very big tackles being made by both teams in a match played for the most part in a good spirit. Undoubtedly there will be a few sore bodies on Sunday.
After the match Captain Mark Donald praised his charges for what was on the whole a good performance but stressed that any inefficiencies need to be ironed out at training on Wednesday evening.
The match also saw another landmark in the history of Armoy RFC as Tom Christie took to the field for the 40th consecutive season. Tom is the only player to have played in every season of the clubs history. Going by the shift he put in on Saturday there wont be many people betting against him turning out for more years to come.
