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Armoy snatch a late draw
City of Derry IV came visiting Limepark on Saturday with the unenviable record of never having won there before.
This record is still intact after they left with only 1 point following a bruising encouter that finished all square at 3-3. Although it may be fair to say that there squad was boosted by a few players from their 3rdXV who had no match to play.
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Right from the start it was evident that it was going to be a battle of the packs with very few opportunities to play running rugby.
City of Derry started of at a lively pace and were winning good ball at the break down.But for all their pressure they very rarely could make inroads on the Armoy goal line due to some stout defending from both forwards and backs. It would also be fair to say that when Armoy were in posession they too were thawarted by some tough tackling and naive decision making by the attacker.
After an evenly contested first half City of Derry went into the break with a 3-0 lead which came virtue of a penalty mid way in the half.
Into the second half and it was more of the same from both teams with neither team looking particularly likely to buckle. However as the game pressed on it was Armoy who seemed to be the more likely to score as they knew that a win was within their grasp. The closest they came to a try was after a good period of possesion Armoy out half Barry Kelly picked up and made a dart for the line. He was held up about a meter short of the try line by which time the City of Derry defence had regrouped and held firm to stop any further attempts on there goal line.With Armoy increasingly in the assendancy their pressure finally paid off when they were awarded a penalty just inside the City of Derry 22. Up stepped Jarvis Traynor who cooly slotted the ball over the bar to bring Armoy back level with only 1 minute of the match left.
Final score Armoy 3 City of DerryIV 3
After the match Armoy captain Gareth Christie made it clear that we really do have to get numbers down to training on a Wednesday evening as it was clearly evident on the days performance that there were deficiencies in many areas that need to be addressed.
Armoy team
J Traynor,R Mckinley,J Cassley,S McMullan,M McConnaghie,B Kelly,T Christie
N Porterfield,A Bartlett,M Donald,D McClafferty,R Gardner,K Greenlaw,G Christie,D Ramage
Subs:E Casey,M Walker,C McCamphill.
We look forward to a special feature being compiled this week on the history and achievements of Armoy RFC – WATCH THIS SPACE
