Armoy had to dig deep in order to secure 2 valuable league points at Limepark on Saturday.
Right from the kick off Armoy showed their intent and went on the attack.After 5 or 6 good phases of attacking rugby they force a penalty out of the Letterkenny defence which was converted for 3 easy points by Jarvis Traynor.
Letterkenny had been given a torid time in the opening exchanges and through some good rucking and passing along their backline broke into the Armoy 22 where they were awarded a penalty. This was converted and the score was level again at 3-3 after only 5 minutes.
From here on it was only one way traffic with the Armoy forwards who were completely dominant in the scrums dictating the pace of the match. Armoy hooker Ally Bartlett was having an easy time of it and took a few against the head. With both backs and forwards keen to run at the Letterkenny defence it was not going to be long before Armoy added to the score.
Sure enough from a series of slow ball drives inside the Letterkenny 22the ball was picked up by Armoy loosehead Neil Porterfield and from 5 meters out he drove low and hard to force his way over for the score.
Unconverted.
From the kick off armoy again went on the attack and were working well in making good ground in the Letterkenny half. However due to some resolute defending and handling errors they were unable to convert their possesion into points.This failure to add to their score could have cost them dear as 5 minutes before half time Armoy were reduced to 14 players as wing forward David Linton was ordered off for a rucking infringement which the referee deemed to be worthy of a red card.
Half time Armoy 8 Letterkenny II 3
With Armoy now down to 14 players Letterkenny must have fancied their chances of coming away with a result. However the Armoy men dug in and played most of the second half in the Letterkenny half keeping Letterkenny pinned in their 22 for long periods. Armoy should have had a second try as Neil porterfield again forced his way over from close in but the referee seemed to think it was held up(it wasn,t though) and awarded a five meter scrum.
Whenever Letterkenny did try to press their advantage there always seemed to be Armoy player to make a tackle and halt any attack they could muster.
With no further scoring in the match Armoy ran out fairly comfortable winners.
Final Score 8-3
After the match Armoy captain Gareth Christie thanked everyone for the effort they put in and also thanked the players for the great turn out at training last week. He hopes to have the similar numbers again this week as it was evident that the good session we had on Wednesday had an influence on the match
