Armagh 2nd maintained their recent good form with a 28-0 win over Cooke 2nd last Saturday. The team showed up quite late and it took them 20 minutes to warm up. Too often they didn’t play their phases and kicked away position too easily. Cooke tried hard but they had nothing really to offer except strong running from their second row and some nice breaks from their scrum half. Armagh took the lead with a penalty from Mathew Steenson and a lovely interchange between backs and forwards saw Davy Martin cross soon after for an unconverted try.
Armagh were now starting to dominate and with an endless supply of great line-out ball they increased their lead with a fine piece of support play from Fletcher getting on the end of a Cuttle break. Steenson converted via the posts and shortly after kicked a 40 metre penalty to leave Armagh leading 18 -0 at half-time.
The second half was very much the same as the first with the Armagh pack dominating completely and setting up some excellent ball for the nippy Armagh backs. There was ample opportunity for further scores but fair play to Cooke they didn’t give up and this led to a fine game of rugby. The highlight of the second half was a magnificent break from Fletcher who ran 50 metres to finally off-load to Jamie Monaghan to score in the corner. The scoring was completed by Gareth McNiece after a quick tap penalty by Shilladay to leave Armagh convincing winners 28-0.
Overall this was a competent performance from a good Armagh side but one was left thinking that they had more to offer.
The scrums were good and the lineout excellent but too often the wrong option was taken and more scores missed out on. However they are an attractive side to watch and try to play good open rugby. They are well organised by their captain Simon Cuttle and will be near about when the league is decided.
