Newly promoted City of Armagh 3rd XV took the field with a few regulars missing from last season. These regulars being snapped up by the, (team of the year), Seconds shows the quality of players in the Thirds, with the vital development going on within the 3rds which doesn’t often get the credit it deserves.
Armagh welcomed back Bob Bell after a 3 year rest, amongst a few young players making there debut in Senior Rugby.
Armagh’s first game in the Junior league saw them behind within the first 30 seconds of the match as Holywood spread the ball wide to there impressive Fijian centre who ran from his own 22 to score the first of his 4 tries for Holywood, the latter coming in the second half. Armaghresponded well from the kick off and after some good work from the forwards, Stan Hamilton popped the ball inside to Simon Beckett who picked a perfect line to score close to the posts, the conversion was made by Matty Nesbitt.
Armagh struck again through the formidable Bob Bell, after a great driving maul from Holywoods 22 metre line, Bob broke off and powered over. Captain Andrew Fletcher was next to get his name on the score sheet, after Armagh had pinned Holywood inside there 22 for 10 minutes, Fletcher burrowed his way over for an unconverted try.
Armagh spread the ball wide, and Jamie Monaghan showed how dangerous he is in space, with a good individual score where he rounded 3 players and scored under the posts, the conversion was missed. Stan Hamilton took over the kicking duties and slotted a penalty to put Armagh further into the lead.
The second half saw Holywood using there Fijian centre a lot, which Armagh struggled to contain. Andy George was up to the task quite a few times but Holywood keep focusing there play around him, which resulted in them drawing level with 10 minutes remaining in the match.
Armagh lost Darren Corey through a head injury and with no subs allowed this put a lot of pressure on the remaining 14 players. The game flowed for one end of the pitch to the other as both teams tried to get a score, that would win the game.
Glen Robinson came close as did Colin Cochrane to scoring the final try but the winning try in the dying seconds came from debute Matty Nesbit, the conversion was missed by Hooks. Armagh showed great heart in a topsey turny game, they dominated in the scrum and lineout, but were a bit rusty in defence.
