City of Armagh played their 8th AIL match last Saturday and unfortunately came away with just one losing bonus point, to slip back to 8th place in Division 1A of the Energia League. With storm Darragh creating havoc around the country and the met office advising only necessary travel should be undertaken, the game surprisingly went ahead as scheduled. Groundsman Andy Rowan has done a terrific job on the pitches over many years and he had the foresight to spike the pitch on Thursday afternoon. This meant the game could go ahead as planned albeit with a strong wind making constructive play difficult.
Armagh took the field with only one of their Ulster allocated players available but they were very keen to get the game played for 2 reasons, one they wanted to break their run of bad luck at home in actually winning a game and 2 to maximise turnover in the clubhouse 3 weeks before Christmas. They had a strong side out with captain Nigel Simpson back after injury and only Dylan Poyntz, Griffin Philipson and Barry Finn not available in the pack and Shea O’Brien in the backs.
Armagh won the toss and decided to play into the wind. Both teams tested each other out and the game went up and down the pitch with Armagh giving away 2 early penalties. Referee Johnny Erskine was certainly very vocal and gave a lot of advice and warnings but the no 13 from Lansdowne was lucky to escape with a warning after a high tackle on Dylan Nelson. Lansdowne were certainly quite sharp around the pitch and with penalties mounting up against Armagh, the home defence was tested on many occasions. At one stage the away team were held up over the Armagh line with Jack Treanor trying desperately to get on the scoreboard. After 22 minutes they were able to do so. After Armagh had given away their 6th penalty, Evin Crummie had to spend ten minutes in the sin bin and Lansdowne used their numerical advantage to score the first try after a scrum on the Armagh line. The scrum shifted to the right slightly and going backwards the home defence couldn’t prevent scrumhalf Cormac Foley going over for the opening score. Outhalf, Madigan converted after having earlier missed a much simpler penalty. With 22 minutes gone, it was Armagh 0 Lansdowne 7.
The next phase of the game swung Armagh’s way when Rocky Olsen, playing in the centre shot up to intercept and run in from 45 metres for a fine individual try. Kyle Faloon who was as elusive as ever on the counter-attack could not convert. Armagh had their tails up and with their big forwards driving forward and keeping Lansdowne on the back foot, a really nice pass from Olsen to full back Faloon, opened up space for Sam Cunningham to sprint over for an excellent try. Faloon converted to put Armagh into a 12 -7 lead, playing into a stiff breeze. So, despite the fact that they had given away 7 penalties in the first half, they went into the break 12-7 up. Lansdowne had much better discipline giving away only 4 penalties.
Hopes were therefore high that Armagh with the wind advantage could have kicked on to close the game out. It was not to be and in fact Lansdowne upped their game slightly. The scrums were pretty even until Mullen got a wrist injury. Lansdowne’s discipline started to slip and they started to give away penalties A couple of overthrows in the lineout didn’t help Armagh’s cause when they should have taken advantage of this ill-discipline. Kyle Faloon stretched Armagh’s lead with a penalty 13 minutes into the second half, but Armagh were penalised yet again for sealing off at the breakdown. Lansdowne’s outhalf then put them into the corner and their lineout which functioned well all day. enabled Jack Treanor to burrow over for a try after a well organised maul. Madigan converted to leave 3 points between the sides, 15-12. Armagh held out on numerous occasions but with 12 minutes to go a controversial decision, enabled Lansdowne to go back to Dublin with 4 points. One is asked not to criticise decisions by the officials but a piece of foul play by the Lansdowne blind side forward, McGauran, settled the game. With a scrum five metres out, referee Johnny Erskine was over at the Armagh loosehead side. The ball was put in but clearly popped out of the scrum and McGauran deftly flicked it back in. The touch judge was 10 metres away and he is only permitted to flag for foul play. Hands in the scrum is foul play and Armagh should have got a penalty. Instead, their number 8 picked up and after a couple of drives forward, centre Andy Marks just about made the line for the winning score. Madigan converted and Lansdowne saw out the game in the last few minutes to win 15-19. The team, coaches and supporters were extremely disappointed with the final outcome. The players played their socks off and the only real criticism one could make was that they did not use the elements better in the second half. Being 12-7 up at half time they should have played to the corners, but a couple of mistakes in kicking the ball out on the full and finding a good touch when clearly referee Erskine had advised ‘taken back in’ cost them the vital league points.
Chris Parker commented afterwards that he thought Armagh’s effort and workrate was fantastic. The team had spoken all week about discipline but giving away too many penalties allowed Lansdowne too many entries into the home 22 and with the ruthless nature of 1A rugby, this eventually cost the team. There is no point though, feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to dust ourselves down and prepare for a very tough test this weekend, away to Clontarf. As a result, Lansdowne leapfrog Armagh in the table to seventh place.
