City of Armagh First XV could not achieve what any club has done for the last 5 years, that is beating Instonians in a league fixture at Shaw’s Bridge. In a reversal of fortunes from last week, Instonians raised their game somewhat and Armagh could not maintain their dominance of the previous week. Armagh had to make a number of changes with James McCormick, on Ulster duty and prop Paul Mullen out for the rest of the season. Johnny Morton and Griffin Philipson came into the team as did Thomas Dougan back from Irish Under 20s. The backline showed a couple of changes with Archie Johnston coming on to the left wing and Cameron Cummings also coming in for his first Ail cap.
There was some doubt as to whether the game could take place as an overnight frost left the playing surface slightly dangerous and referee Rob McGreer took a lot of advice to make the decision to play it.
The game kicked off and Armagh immediately got on the score board when Owen O’Kane dinked a ball over the top of Instonians’ defence. It was gathered by Timmy McNiece who found his centre partner, Cameron Cummings on his inside and he finished the move superbly. What a way to celebrate your first AIL game! O’Kane converted to put Armagh into a 7-0 lead after one minute. It could have been even better when the Inst loosehead, Lupari collapsed a scrum and O’Kane went for the posts. Unfortunately, his kick drifted wide on this occasion. Armagh had the upper hand but couldn’t get over for that second score, but to be fair, the Inst defence was tremendous. Armagh then let Instonians into the game by giving away penalties and outhalf Eagleson gave them a foothold in Armagh’s half. This week their lineout performed better. Disaster struck when the ball was moved to the right wing and there lurking was the dangerous David Whitten who showed tremendous pace to score from 55 metres out. Eagleson converted and the score remained level at half time. Just before half time Armagh suffered a real blow when Griffin Phillipson was no longer able to take part and was replaced by Phil Fletcher. The club are having no luck with injuries especially in the front row and to lose two tighthead props in succession is worrying.
Instonians started the second half with their confidence high and they were able to penetrate the Armagh defence close to the ruck and left Armagh vulnerable on occasions. This resulted in a try by wing forward, Pritchard, converted by Eagleson. Minutes later, the impressive flanker, Mark Lee increased Insts’ lead to 19-7. Shortly after this, the O’Kane – Cummings partnership brought hope to Armagh supporters when O’Kane put through a timely grubber kick for Cummings to score his second try. Could Armagh go on and build on this piece of enterprising play? The answer was no, as they continued to fall foul of the referee and Eagleson further increased their lead with a well struck penalty. At 22-14 down Armagh knew their task was enormous and the final nail in their coffin was a Mark Keane try near the end to secure their win and a try bonus point. The team never gave up though and fought to the end. There were some fine individual performances with Shea O’Brien always showing his attacking abilities.
The result leaves Instonians second in the table behind Old Wesley and they will be pressing for automatic promotion. Armagh meanwhile will be consolidating a mid-table position and would hope to get further wins in the second part of their season. Not to make excuses, but their injury tally is enormous and with a small pool of players they cannot afford further injuries. They play with great courage though and are a credit to the club and City.
