For the second consecutive Saturday Armagh made the trek to Rifle Park to play their neibours, Banbridge. This time it was the Ulster Senior Cup, Quarterfinal that drew the Armagh team to the wet, windy, environs of Banbridge.
Armagh were still sore from the narrow defeat last Saturday when they played the wet & untidy game which ended 20-16. Judging from the weather conditions on Saturday anyone coming through the gates at Rifle Park knew that this game was not going to be comfortable or pretty for either players or spectators.
Armagh kicked off with the stout breeze at their backs and almost immediately, the play concentrated on the Banbridge line. This emphasised that the filthy, windy, weather conditions were going to play a major part in this particular game. The home team, however, fought their way out of their ‘22’ and when the first scrum of the game was set it was obvious that the heavy Banbridge pack were keen to dominate this game as they did last Saturday!
Apart from the scrums, Armagh continued to dominate the open play and continued to threaten the home team’s defence with some very enterprising play.
The first half rendered no points on the board but within four minutes after the re start Banbridge’s number 6 Alan Conn, scored a fine try in almost the same spot where their Captain scored the previous Saturday. When the conversion was kicked, it did not look good for Armagh with the score now at 7-0. Things looked even worse when the visiting front row were penalised for collapsing a scrum. Yet again, the Banbridge out-half put the ball between the posts to bring the score to 10-0.
Eight minutes before the final whistle, the Banbridge fullback scored a break away try in the exactly the spot of the previous score but the conversion, on this occasion, went wide to leave the final score at 15-0.
At the end of the day, the Armagh team would rather leave this game back in Rifle Park. They were always going to be under pressure to control the heavy, belligerent Banbridge pack despite being able to make breaks and continually broach the gain line all over the open park. Despite this, the Banbridge front row still asked most of the questions!
