City of Armagh Senior Women’s 1st XV have had an incredible first half of the season, from entering the Ulster League set up for the first time and winning every match to win Phase 1 of the Championship B league. This saw them promoted into Championship A for Phase 2 of the 2025-26 season and whilst they have yet to play a fixture in this league they were out in force again on Sunday playing a 2nd round cup match against Coleraine Ladies.
This match was rescheduled from early December and in fact the Armagh women hadn’t had a competitive fixture from mid-November so it was understandable that it took them a good part of the first half to settle into the game before getting a score at around 20 minutes through Gemma Gillanders. It was again another 20 minutes on when Beth McBurney burst through for the try, converted by Katierose Pickering to bring the score 12-0 to the home side on the half time whistle.
Armagh had found their stride and scored a further 4 tries in the second half through Rebecca Kirkland, Beth McBurney, Katierose Pickering and Kaitlyn Graham, with Pickering adding an extra 4 points on conversions.Coleraine never gave up and 13 minutes into the second half found the space through the Armagh defence. Final Score 38-5.
The Maxxpresso Player of the match was presented to Hollie Maguire. The women now progress to the semi-final of the Suzanne Fleming Cup which will be played at the Palace Grounds on Sunday 15th February against Omagh.
