City of Armagh 2XV Match Report

City of Armagh Seconds have Bangor all at Sea.

City of Armagh 2XV continued their league programme with a home fixture against Bangor seconds on Saturday. Again with the pitch in fine condition, the watching crowd were treated to a good contest between 2 competitive sides. Some sloppy play by Armagh at the kick off gave Bangor early possession and they quickly showed that they had not travelled West just to make up the numbers.

The home side’s defence was tested time and time again as Bangor went through the phases with Gareth McNeice leading from the front. When the home side made headway into the Bangor half, numerous mistakes were made at the breakdown giving possession back to Bangor through penalties. After more sustained pressure from the visitors, they scored a converted try at the posts, 0-7 to Bangor.

With the home team now realising that they were in a game they started to make inroads into Bangor territory though Magillan, Matthews and Martin. With Matthew Steenson playing at 10 and working hard to try and engineer an opening for his backline, he put a grubber kick through for Andrew Knipe to collect and put Jonny Clarke in close to the posts. The try was unconverted, 5-7 to Bangor. A 40 metre penalty from Steenson gave Armagh a halftime lead of 8-7. With the game finely balanced, Armagh looked to maintain the tempo and on 44 minutes from a lineout on the Bangor 22, Spratt spun the ball to Paul Campbell who came off his wing at pace picking a diagonal line to score in the corner, 13-7 to Armagh.

Shortly after, Spratt sniped over at the posts following a ruck close to the posts. Steenson converted to increase the lead to 20-7. With Jonny Steenson playing his first game this season at fullback and using his ball carrying strength and kicking skills to good effect, the home team were on the attack once again. Matthew Steenson put a Crossfield kick to the wing where it was collected by Knipe who committed the last defender to put Luke Crozier away to the corner for a good try, 25-5 to Armagh.

A similar try was scored by the industrious Zac Kneebone in the same corner, 30-5. The final try came at the end of some good interplay by the forwards with Conleth Magillan running in from 15 metres. This was another good outing from the team with Captain McNeice putting in a man of the match performance for his all action performance.

Photo Credits: Ken Redpath