River Rock Town’s Cup semi final
City of Armagh Seconds 12 Ballyclare RFC 19
Sat 17th March 2018

The eagerly awaited Town’s Cup semi final between City of Armagh 2nd xv and Ballyclare took place at The Palace Grounds on Saturday with the backdrop of the annual St Patrick’s day parade taking place on the city and the Ireland Grand Slam match on television. A loyal crowd of supporters from both clubs chose to cheer on their respective teams and it was the underdogs, Ballyclare who emerged victorious after a hard-fought encounter.

The visitors kicked off in dry, bright conditions and in the early stages it became clear that their experienced pack of forwards had the edge at scrum time with former Ulster player, Ricky Lutton influential in the front row. With 11 minutes on the clock, Ballyclare kicked a penalty to touch and from the lineout Armagh collapsed the maul, giving the visitors the penalty which Robbie Reid converted for a 3 nil lead.
Ballyclare went on to dominate the first 30 minutes, enjoying superior possession and only good defence by Armagh kept the visitors at bay. On 32 minutes Ballyclare missed a second penalty attempt and Armagh outhalf, Harry Boyd sent the drop out superbly into the Ballyclare 22. Armagh won the lineout and Johnny Morton made good ground towards the Ballyclare line. Scrum half
TC Campbell spread the ball out the backline and winger, Misi Bogitini squeezed over in the corner for Armagh’s opening try. The difficult conversion was missed but Armagh now led 5-3 with just their first incursion into the Ballyclare 22. The home team took confidence from this score and forced Ballyclare to try and run the ball from inside their 22. Armagh centre, Pau Gimeno-Alvarez intercepted a speculative pass and crossed under the posts for a simple conversion by Boyd. Remarkably Armagh now led 12-3 after being on the back foot for most of the first half. Boyd then had a long range penalty attempt fall just short before halftime and the interval arrived with the scoreline remaining 12-3 in Armagh’s favour.

The second half commenced with Armagh enjoying early possession but Ballyclare exerted their forward dominance with another scrum penalty to take play into the Armagh half. On 48 minutes an Armagh forward strayed offside and Reid stepped up again to stroke over the penalty to reduce arrears to 12-6. Armagh returned to the attack with Campbell probing the Ballyclare defence which was holding firm. On 57 minutes Ballyclare scored their first try of the match when Dave Clarke broke through weak Armagh tackling to score under the posts. Remarkably the conversion hit the post and Armagh were hanging on by the narrowest of margins 12-11.

The home forwards took play into Ballyclare territory before the decisive moment of the match arrived in the 64th minute. Ballyclare centre Joel McBride intercepted an Armagh pass and sprinted 50 metres to score a crucial try. With flurries of snow now falling, the conversion was missed but Ballyclare now had a valuable 12-16 lead.

The final quarter played out with Ballyclare still dictating play. The home team needed a try to rescue the match but were pinned back in their 22 with Ballyclare pressing for a further score.
Their dominance was rewarded with a penalty in the final minute which Smith converted to put the visitors 12-19 ahead and the whistle went for full time much to the joy of the Ballyclare travelling support.

The Armagh coaching team were disappointed with the result and their team’s performance on the day. They congratulated Ballyclare on their victory as they were the better team on the day and wished them all the best in the final.