City of Derry Rugby Club progressed to the Semi Final of the Ulster Senior Cup when they came from behind to beat a tenacious Armagh side with a converted try scored deep into injury time. Armagh will once again wonder what they have to do to defeat the Judges Road men having now been beaten ten times in their last eleven encounters. Derry Coaches Mark Nicholl and Ashley Blair will take this victory that continues the season’s momentum having won eight out of nine of their competitive fixtures. They now move on to their next two All Ireland League fixtures at home in consecutive weeks starting with Old Wesley at Judges Road this Saturday.
The conditions were perfect for rugby on Saturday last and both team started with intent moving the ball around. Derry had the best of the early exchanges but the first time Armagh got into the home teams half courtesy of a speculative kick to clear their lines they scored. The Derry defence tried to keep a ball bound for touch alive and flicked it straight into Armagh’s full backs hands and Tim McNeice ran in for a try which was converted by Kiwi out half Dylan Ferreira for a 7pts to nil lead for the Orchard County men.
Derry’s retort was immediate and with Chris Cooper dominating the lineout and solid scrimmaging from Steven Jefferson, Sam McAuley and Paul McFeely quality ball was a given for scrum half Andrew Semple. The result was out half Richard McCarter was beginning to show his class with elusive running and accurate passing. McCarter produced an outstanding move on fourteen minutes that deserved a try but an exquisite chip came to nothing following obstruction. The Derry pack produced the equalising score on seventeen minutes when following two powerful scrums which were collapsed by an under pressure Armagh eight, the referee awarded a penalty try which McCarter converted to level the scores at 7pts all.
Derry were caught off side at the breakdown in midfield on twenty minutes and Ferreira kicked the penalty from 35 meters to give Armagh a 10pts to 7pts lead. The second quarter became very disjointed as mistakes abounded but in saying that the Derry pack were having the edge with David Houston, Adam Bratton, Tom Patton and David Funston having the better of the exchanges at the breakdown. Despite the best efforts of Peter Henderson at full back and Chris Barber in the centre Derry were unable to push their noses in front and turned around at half time 10pts to 7pts in arrears.
Derry started positively in the second half with Simon Logue, Ryan Campbell and David Graham looking dangerous from the off. Richard People had come on at out half and his physical presence produce rewards after three minutes when he broke a couple of tackles to chip forward and with Funston and Bratton winning quick ruck ball Semple found Chris Barber who touched down for an unconverted try and Derry lead by 12pts to 10pts. Derry were applying pressure without penetration and on nineteen minutes they were intercepted while on the attack in the Armagh half when Josh Morton collected and sprinted 60 meters to touch down between the posts and with Ferreira converting Armagh were ahead by 17pts to 12pts.
Derry were almost out of the game from the kick off when they fell asleep at the breakdown and allowed Armagh to come straight through the ruck and their hooker Peter Lambe looked destined to score. Derry played their get out of jail card in the form of Man of the Match Chris Barber who came from nowhere and nailed his man 5 meters short and with Derry turning over possession they were still in the game. Derry threw everything at Armagh who defended strongly. Derry looked to be in for a score on 29 minutes but with a three man overlap 5 meters out Armagh’s Matthew Steenson slapped Semple’s pass down and was sent to the sin bin. Derry were penalised for dropping a 5 meter scrum when they were they were the dominant pack all day and a massive chance to score was gone.
Derry kept coming back and were awarded a penalty in front of the posts with just two minutes of normal time remaining and they went for the points. Barber kicked Derry within 2pts of Armagh and they now trailed by 15pts to 17pts. Derry looked like scoring on a few occasions with powerful runs from Chris Shields, Gareth Beattie David Ferguson and Stephen Corr. Derry had another penalty three minutes into injury time to take the lead from 30 meters out by unfortunately it was missed.
Armagh kicked long and Henderson ran the ball back from his own half as the game entered the sixth minute of injury time. Henderson passed to Semple who offloaded to Tom Patton. He drove for the line to draw two men before passing to winger Simon Logue who got in at the corner but touched down between the posts and with Barber converting Derry had once again grasped victory from the jaws of defeat against Armagh, this time by 22pts to 17pts.
City of Derry Team V Armagh; Steven Jefferson, Sam McAuley, Paul McFeely, David Houston, Chris Cooper, Adam Bratton, David Funston, Tom Patton, Andrew Semple, Richard McCarter, David Graham, Chris Barber, Ryan Campbell, Simon Logue, Peter Henderson, Replacements; Gareth Beattie, David Ferguson, Chris Shields, Stephen Ferguson, Richard Peoples.
