Armagh seconds beat Malone seconds
Armagh seconds played a strong Malone seconds at the Palace ground on Saturday in the second fifteen league. Malone opened the scoring on 8 minutes touching down out wide for a converted try, 7 – 0 to Malone. The Armagh forwards were now warming to the battle and took the game to the Malone eight. Matthew Steenson struck with a penalty to bring the score to 7 -3. On 14 minutes after strong Armagh forward play in the opposition’s 22, Con Oliver barrelled his way over to score a deserved try, 8 – 7 to Armagh. Malone were a well drilled side and Armagh had to defend stoutly at times as their speedy backline threatened on many occasions. Sam knipe who was having a storming game made another burst for the line and when stopped a metre short, Jonny Allen was quickest to react and dive over to score at the posts for a converted try, 15 –7 to Armagh. Although under pressure in the scrums due to Malone’s persistant wheeling, Armagh were making good progress in the loose and with the scores staying the same at halftime, the home team looked forward to playing with the breeze in the second half. With Matthew Wright making a very welcome return playing at 9, the Armagh backline with Jonny Allen and John Faloon in the centre, Stuart Lester and Eddie Irwin on the wings had plenty of pace. Armagh suffered an early setback when Andrew Morton had to leave the field with a shoulder injury, however the remaining 14 players battled on led by Brian Bassett and Davy Martin who made numerous carries into the Malone half. When deep into the Malone 22 on 55 minutes, Con Oliver claimed his second try of the game in much the same way as his first. With Steenson’s fine conversion, Armagh led 22 – 7. Malone replied with their own converted try when their second row cut through from 20 metres out, 22 – 14. With Timmy McNeice combining well with Eddie Irwin, the latter chipped his opposite number narrowly missing out on another try. Malone had difficulty clearing their line and when Steenson fed an inside pass to Stuart Lester on the visitors 22, he stormed through to touch down at the posts. With the conversion added, Armagh had increased their lead to 29 – 14. Malone never give up realising that there was still time to rescue the game and did score another 7 pointer late on. Armagh played out the rest of the game in Malone’s 22 and when the fulltime whistle blew, the final score was 29 – 21 to Armagh. The seconds had beat a very good side and played most of the second half with 14 players. This was a very good all round performance with the home forwards competing well up front and the back line able to use hard earned possession to create try scoring opportunities.
