City of Armagh Rugby Club 1sr xv had a promising start to their 2024-25 campaign with a well-earned victory over Rainey OB in Ulster Senior League. Played in ideal conditions on a well-prepared pitch, the game started with a minute silence to former Armagh and Enniskillen legend Ernie Beattie who passed away suddenly during the week. Armagh had a few debutants in their team with Lloyd Quinn making his debut on the firsts and Finn Fehnert, starting for the first time at hooker. With Jack Treanor having gone to Lansdowne and Jonny Morton injured, Jack Reaney, a transfer from Queens, also made his first senior game when he came off the bench to hook. Adding a bit of mystery to the whole occasion, Rocky Olsen came the whole way from New Zealand last weekend to make his Armagh debut off the bench.
Armagh started brightly playing with real pace and determination. Tim McNeice had a couple of grubber kicks to keep the pressure on Rainey but also could have put O’Brien in early on. Rainey were however very combative at the breakdown and had some good phases of play. After 15 minutes Sam Glasgow after a couple of seasons of injury problems broke the deadlock when he drove forward from a series of rucks to score close to the posts. Kyle Faloon converted. Armagh, as they are prone to do relaxed somewhat and allowed Rainey to come back into the game. The penalty account started to rise against the home side and from an infringement on the 10 metre Ryan Davies slotted over a penalty to reduce the deficit.
Armagh were still looking very dangerous and from a great piece of individual play from Sam Cunningham, Kyle dived over in the corner to increase the lead. He did much the same minutes later to double his account when his enterprising play rewarded him again. Rainey could have reduced the score but sound defence ensured that Armagh went into the half time break 17-3 up. Coaches Chris Parker and Gareth Steenson, while somewhat happy with the first half performance, demanded more from their side in the second half. They got the desired response when Armagh scored 4 more tries through Neil Faloon with a catch and drive from a lineout, a blind side move from Olsen which put winger O’Brien in on the right-hand corner. There was a fine individual try from Captain Nigel Simpson and a try from Fehnert to seal off the win. In truth Armagh could have had more tries if they had have been more clinical but it would be harsh to criticize a performance when they win by 40 points. The team looked much fitter than Rainey with some fine individual performances. Lineouts can still be an area to work on with both Fehnert and Reaney missing their target on occasion. Too many penalties were given away and one bout of ill-discipline in the corner nearest the clubhouse could have meant yellow or even a red card. Man of the match was Simpson for both his leadership qualities and leading from the front. The biggest cheer of the day came from Rocky Olsen flipped an inside pass to Philip Fletcher and the big man almost scored with a determined burst. There are many bigger hurdles to encounter with the match next week being a step up.
Head coach, Chris Parker had a couple of early cry offs to contend with and quite rightly made sure that anyone with a slight twinge or knock was taken off. He commented that it was a pleasing start against a good Rainey side, who challenged his team in a number of areas across the pitch. His team have worked hard in pre-season and so many aspects on what the team has worked on were evident. Chris and Gareth acknowledge it was not quite the finished article and that there is a lot to improve on. Going to Instonians next week will be another test but a good training week should see some fine tuning and players getting to know each other a bit better
