Armagh entertained Skerries at the Palace grounds on Saturday afternoon as they played their fifth game of the season in the Ulster Bank All-Ireland League.
It was always going to be a tight game as skerries were lying just two places above Armagh in the League table. Taking this into account skerries had scored almost double Armagh’s points so they had more than earned their second place league spot. With this in mind, coach, Andrew Hughes emphasised to his squad that the lacklustre performance produced in Limerick against Richmond two weeks ago would not be adequate at all!
Picture the day with Skerries bringing a large and very vocal support to Armagh where the home support were entertained in a pre-match lunch with Media host Adrian Logan introducing the current Director of Rugby, David Humphreys who was more than capable of entertaining the captive audience with his memories of playing for Ireland when he was capped 72 times. His vast rugby experience has, indeed, contributed to Ulster’s recent exemplorary profile.
From the kick-off Armagh took an early lead when Richard Reaney kicked a penalty in only the third minute of play. This was shortly followed by another fine kick from Reaney’s boot when he landed another penalty to put Armagh 6-0 ahead. Both sides were very evenly matched but the lighter Armagh pack were more than able to hold their own in the set pieces. In open play the nimble Skerries backs did look dangerous and a fine try by winger, Kevin McGrath, showed that the Leinster men really meant business! Another penalty from Reaney and Skerries counterpart, Conal Keane brought the half time score to 9-8. At this stage of the game it was in the balance which side would earn the vital league points.
The second half saw the close struggle continue with Skerries having two players earning yellow cards and Armagh’s full-back Johnny Steenson serving a stint in the sin-bin. The game ended with man-of-the-match Richard Reaney kicking another six points to bring the full-time score to 15-8.
Whilst this was, indeed, a sound win for Armagh as the general concensus was that Skerries more or less had this one in the bag, the Armagh team did extract an exceptional spirit on Saturday and were rewarded with four league points. The irony of the situation is that the losing bunus point earned by Skerries means that Armagh remain in exactly the same league position the held on Friday but Skerries do drop a place to third slot.
Next Saturday sees Armagh travel to Navan to play Boyne who suffered a heavy 31-12 on Saturday when they played Greystones. The Armagh team always respond to good vocal support so do make a point of getting down to Navan to cheer on the team. After all Navan is less than an hour down the road to watch the best entertaining side from the county!
