Match Report Nov 16th 2024

City of Armagh travelled to Limerick for the second time this season and remarkably came away with a bonus point victory. The team sheet was missing inspirational captain Nigel Simpson with a facial injury and he was replaced by James Anderson. James McNabney, Sam Berman and Cameron Doak were also all out through injury. The game was played with a vocal crowd in the background but it was City of Armagh who started off better with their forwards driving Young Munster back. The scrums were strong and the lineouts working well. Armagh went into an early lead after 5 minutes when their renowned maul got them over the line and Jonny Morton grounded the ball. Kyle Faloon converted to give Armagh a 7-0 lead. Kyle increased the lead with a simple penalty for 0-10 and then the YM winger, Hubert Gilvarry scored an opportunist try to bring them back into the game. With the Armagh front row hitting their opponents at every opportunity and both John Glasgow, Josh McKinley driving well, Young Munster found it difficult to get a foothold in the game. Lewis Finlay’s box kicking was also effective and kept the pressure on the opposition. When they needed to consolidate, they lost their first lineout, but a lovely dummy and show of the ball by Evin Crummie allowed him a bit of space and an inside pass to Dylan Nelson had the elusive winger diving over under the posts. The kick was a formality for Kyle and a scoreline of 5-17. Armagh continued to play with composure and there was even the sight of a great take by Josh McKinley at the back of a lineout. However, if you switch off at this level, mistakes can count and with a couple of missed tackles, the nippy YM scrum half, Jake O’Riordan scampered in for a try really against the run of play. This was converted to leave the half time score 12-17 for Armagh when in fact they had played most of the rugby.

Armagh started off the second half trying to close down the YM attack. There were a couple of poor decisions to kick the ball, but a terrific 50-22 by Kyle Faloon, set up another Armagh attack. The momentum was lost however with a knock on. An excellent break by John Glasgow brought play into the YM 22 and after a series of drives and a penalty advantage, Josh McKinley drove over for a score, converted again by Kyle Faloon. 12-24 to Armagh. However, another break by Gilvarry reduced the scores again to 19-24 with the home crowd shouting for more. Chris Parker now emptied his bench as some mistakes started to creep into the Armagh game. On 68 minutes the bonus point try was achieved when a long pass from Rocky Olsen put Kyle Faloon in a bit of space and he drew his opposite number and timed his pass to perfection to put Sam Cunningham away on the left wing. Sam used his pace to score in the corner and an excellent conversion had Armagh in the lead 19-31 and 5 points almost secured. The visitors however didn’t secure the restart and gave YM another opportunity. Back they came and the penalty count started to increase against Armagh.

With 5 minutes to go, Young Munster increased all the Armagh supporter’s heart rates, when an Armagh scrum went slightly backwards and Lewis Finlay who was having an excellent game was bundled off the ball by his opposite number who put Gilvarry in for his third try. The conversion was missed but the game was now on a knife edge at 24-31 in Armagh’s favour. The last few minutes seemed to last forever with penalty after penalty against Armagh. Referee Dan Carson finally lost his patience and yellow carded Olsen who took a yellow for the team. With YM camped on Armagh’s line a draw was possibly on the cards but the Armagh defence held out and referee Carson eventually blew the final whistle, penalising a Young Munster player for a double movement.

Final score Young Munster 24 City of Armagh 31