Armagh Under 15s Win League
The Armagh under 15s maintained their great season with an emphatic 41 -7 win against a gallant Monaghan side who went through their league season unbeaten. Armagh were like the Ireland side, absolutely magnificent and rarely gave Monaghan a chance!
In the overall league championship final game scoring 6 tries in the process and only conceding one score!
Played in ideal conditions on a firm Monaghan pitch, Armagh attacked from the outset and should have been several scores up in the first quarter. With their forwards driving hard at Monaghan the pacey backs had an abundance of ball but the final pass always seemed to go astray Sustained pressure resulted in an massive overlap and Shane McKeeever barged over for an unconverted try five minutes later Shea O’Brien danced his way over for another try and Armagh were in the driving seat. Shortly before half-time Cormac Fox streaked over for a third try to leave Armagh 15-0 up at the break.
Strong words from coach Anton Finn at half-time ensured that Armagh were quite prepared to play into the strong breeze in the second half and when Cormac slotted over 3 penalties, Armagh could afford to relax a bit. Further tries were scored by Shane McKeever, Paul Mullan. Neill McGuinness and a conversion from Cormac to leave the final score 41-7 to Armagh with Monaghan scoring a consolation try through the speedy centre Savage.
This was a marvellous win by Armagh and this seems to be the first league championship that they have ever won. This has been a team in the making with most of the boys learning their rugby at mini level and then through the under 13s when they got to the cup final at Ravenhill 2 years ago only to be beaten by Lurgan. They have a big squad of players to pick from and have been lucky with injuries this season the only casualty being Pearce Lennon with a broken ankle.
They are excellently coached by Anton Finn backed up by Harry Doyle and the whole team is overseen by Gervaise O’Brien and Richard Black. Great credit should be given to the thirty boys who turn up regularly and especially the younger boys who are not quite big enough to play at such a high level. The boys are now looking forward to a good cup run and they play Letterkenny at home this coming weekend. There is still a lot to play for and you can be assured that they will be trying their best to do the double.
