Following their AIL victory away to Nenagh Ormonde, Armagh First Fifteen travelled to Belfast on Saturday to face Queens University in the Ulster Senior League.
A number of changes on the team included starts for Simon Carlisle, Willie Hill and John Faloon, while Colin Atkinson took the opportunity to move into the back row in place of the absent James Morton.
Conditions for rugby were ideal and Armagh kicked off with a slight breeze behind them. Immediately the home team were put under pressure and after three minutes the Queens front row were penalised at a scrum and Johnny Steenson kicked a straight-forward penalty from 25 metres to put Armagh into the lead 3-0.
A second penalty to Armagh on 9 minutes was kicked successfully by Steenson from 35 metres and Armagh had an early 6-0 lead.
Queen’s first venture into Armagh territory was rewarded with a penalty for offside and the Queen’s fullback reduced arrears to 3-6.
Armagh continued to dominate the first twenty minutes and had a noticeable edge in the scrums. Another penalty to the visitors was kicked into the corner by Reaney and a backline move saw a strong burst by centre Faloon which was halted a yard short of the try line. The ball was recycled and outhalf McBriar kicked across field and Matthew Irwin was unlucky not to latch on to the ball for a try.
On 23 minutes Queens counter-attacked from their own half and brought play into the Armagh 22 where their full back entered the line to score a try under the posts.
The conversion put the home team into the lead for the first time at 10-6.
On thirty minutes James McCall broke from a scrum and charged into the Queen’s 22. Queens killed the ball and the referee award a penalty to Armagh. The visitors declined the kick at goal and again kicked into the corner. The tactic paid off when a beautiful catch and drive by the pack resulted in a try for captain Phil Hill.
The difficult conversion was missed but Armagh had now taken a narrow lead, 10-11.
The visitors continued to dominate the first half and another penalty award was again kicked to the touchline however a score failed to materialise as the lineout was not secured. This was repeated as the first half came to a close and a penalty to Queens relived the Armagh pressure. The half time whistle went with Armagh holding a narrow 10-11 lead over their more senior opponents.
The second half kicked off with Queens now having the wind advantage and they immediately looked revitalised scoring 2 tries in the first 5 minutes from the restart.
The pressure on Armagh did not relent and a successful penalty by the home team saw the scoreline stretch to 27-11.
Five minutes later things got worse for Armagh when the Queen’s winger scored their fourth try and the students now led 32-11.
Armagh had few attacking opportunities but a breakout and kick ahead by Matthew Irwin was foiled by the touchline and inevitably Queens returned to the attack where their slick backline was causing all sorts of problems for the visitors. Try number five for Queens arrived with twenty minutes still to play and missed tackles by Armagh led to another try 3 minutes later making the score 46-11 to the students. Armagh did score a consolation try in the last minute of the match through number eight James McCall and a conversion by Matthew Steenson made the final score 46-18.
This match was a classic ‘game of two halves’ with Armagh’s dominance in the first 40 minutes disappearing in the second half.
Next up for Armagh is another major test at home on St Patrick’s Day to League champions Dungannon!
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Ireland Ladies Rugby I XV Are playing England this weekend and need as much support as they can get – please watch the clip below and feel free to share it, they are on the verge of a great VICTORY & with Ulster representation!
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