City of Armagh U14s played their first league game on Saturday 7 October against Banbridge U14s at Rifle Park in Banbridge. The match turned out to be an entertaining contest and a good example of Youth rugby.

Banbridge came out of the blocks more determined and a swift backline move saw Banbridge score an early try after only 3 minutes. On the restart however Armagh encamped in Banbridges 22. A number of drives from Ian Kennedy, Jack Rowntree, Pauric Loughran and Mathew Morrison were held up short however Armagh’s lively scrum half Lee Wilson took advantage of a disjoined defence and darted over for a fine try after 7mins. The conversion was missed and the reminder of the half was end to end with both sides willing to run the ball. Michael Burnett came close to scoring via a chip and chase however Banbridge’s defence was alert to it. Lewis Crozier and Cathal Maguire also combined to create and overlap however once again a determined effort from Banbridge held them out and the score remained 5-5 at half time.

Armagh started the second half brightly however a dropped ball on 4min allowed Bainbridge’s pacey centre to run from deep inside his own half to score under the posts and make it 12-5 in Bainbridge’s favour. Banbridge’s centre pairing combined again on 8mins to put Armagh 17-5 down. For the remainder of the match however Armagh came back into the game in determined fashion. Firstly a good backline move saw Michael Burnett slide over out wide to make it 17-10. With 10mins remaining a turn over from Daniel McGuckin and strong carries from Mathew Nichol and Jack Armstrong brought Armagh close to Banbridges line creating a gap for Mathew Maguire to crash over under the posts. Burnett added the extras to leave the game at 17-17. Armagh came close to winning the game on several occasions. Firstly an overlap was created and it looked to have sent Davyd Wilson into the corner however the final pass was adjudged to have gone forward. Next a high tackle on Pauric Morgan saw an opportunity squandered with a quick tap and go knocked on. In the final minute Armagh thought they had won the game when Lewis Crozier was adjudged to have been short and when Seth Lockart assisted the referee saw an infringement.

Both sets of coaches were full of praise for how both teams played and conducted themselves throughout and credit to both teams for creating an exciting first league game.

Final Score 17-17.