City of Armagh and Trinity renewed acquaintance last Saturday when they both fought out a 21 all draw at the Palace Grounds. Armagh’s pack was much the same as it has been over previous games, with Josh Cunningham coming into the back row. Danny Guy and Owen O’Kane were in at 9 and 10 for the first time this year. Three new three quarters came in for their first Armagh game, Fred Harris, Nathan Hamilton and Ethan Graham alongside the reliable Sam Cunningham and Shea O’Brian at full back. There were also a couple of new recruits in the replacements, Edward Shekete and Taylor Gayle both recruited over the summer. Edward was playing his rugby in Italy while Taylor was in Perth, Australia.
Trinity went into an early lead when their second row, Smykovsky went over for an unconverted try after 6 minutes. Armagh bounced back with a try through Shea O’Brien converted by Owen O’Kane. Both teams tried hard to break the deadlock, but it was Trinity who edged out in front with a penalty through McMahon 7 minutes before halftime. The score remained unchanged up to the interval.
Trinity increased their lead early in the second half with another try through their winger James Browne. Not to be deterred, Armagh edged into the lead again when Niall Carville used all his brute force to go over for a try, converted by O’Kane. They increased their lead through a fine score by Sam Cunningham, again converted by O’Kane. With the score now 21 -13 in Armagh’s favour, one would have hoped that the home side would get the 4th try and a bonus point win. As a result of giving away too many penalties however, Armagh found themselves starved of possession and McMahon kept Trinity ‘s score board ticking on nicely with another penalty. Second row Ginnety, put the cat among the pigeons when his try on 64 minutes levelled the scoreline.
At this stage either side could have won the game, but a draw was in general a fair result. Coach, Chris Parker was philosophical in his summary saying that discipline let the team down. He reckoned that Trinity will get stronger as the season progresses. He was pleased with the performances of some of the players making their debut.
