Omagh 2nd XV 20 City of Armagh 2nd XV 22
Saturday 31st March 2018
Pau to the rescue.
Armagh Second xv travelled to Omagh on 31st March and were lucky to come away with a 22-20 victory against a much changed Omagh side. When Armagh played them 4 weeks ago they put on 48 unanswered point against them. Things were different on this occasion and they had to rely on alte opportunist try from Gimeneo-Alvarez to steal the game. Played in terrific conditions Armagh struggled to get a foothold in the game as a result of giving away too many penalties. After harry Boyd missed a kick Armagh butchered a couple of chances. A terrific break by Holden from his own half nearly brought rewards but Omagh scrambled back to clear the danger. William couldn’t be denied and shortly afterwards, he scored a fine individual try, putting in a chip from 5 yards and beating the cover defence to score midway out. Boyd converted to give Armagh a narrow lead.
Shortly afterwards, a sweeping back move left the Armagh cover very exposed and Omagh scored close to the posts. Surprisingly the easy kick was missed and Armagh turned around at halftime leading 7-5. Unfortunately, Holden who was having a good game, injured his shoulder again and had to come off. He was replaced by Mattie Wright who although he hasn’t played rugby at all this season, slotted into the game with usual enthusiasm.
Five minutes into the second half, Boyd stoked over a penalty to stretch the Armagh lead, but almost immediately the big Omagh pack were awarded a penalty try when the visitors collapsed a rolling maul. The situation didn’t get much better for Armagh when the referee awarded another penalty and they then leaked another try from a rolling maul. Not to be outdone Armagh responded with a Mathew Reaney try in the corner and this set up a grand finale.
Reaney was unlucky shortly afterward when a fine cross kick by Boyd evaded him in the corner. With the game going into injury time and Armagh’s nerves being frayed, being 20-15 down, out of nowhere Pau Gimeno-Alvarez intercepted from his own half and using his blistering speed, dived over to level the score. Boyd, showing nerves of steel, slotted over to conversion to give Armagh a slightly fortunate win.
Up front the forwards were bullied slightly by the bigger Omagh pack, but once the ball was moved wide, the pace of the Armagh threequarters troubled a well marshalled defence. This win follows on from a great midweek victory against Ballymena 2nds when 8 tries were scored to leave Armagh in pole position with 2 games to go. They face Malone this Saturday and Banbridge on a date to be rearranged. If Armagh win these 2 games and their long awaited conference league game against Ballyclare, they could end the season winning 2 leagues, runners-up in the Junior Cup and reaching the semi final of the Towns’ Cup. Credit must go to the players but also the coaching staff of Willie Faloon, Chris Parker and Dave Eakin not to forget the management support of Gary Morton.