Bucaneers RFC 24 City of Armagh RFC 17

Saturday 1st December 2018

City of Armagh had probably their worst performance of the season on Saturday when they went down 24-17 against a Buccaneers side struggling near the bottom of Division 1B. Buccaneers were able to call on the services of 3 Connacht players whereas Armagh were missing 6 regulars due to injury. Armagh got off to a poor start and were 3-0 down after 5 minutes. The side was not able to control a slippery ball and knocked on, on several occasions. It was from such a mistake that they were penalised in front of their own posts for offside and the Buccanners’ outhalf opened the scoring. Disaster then struck when a mix up from a Garryowen saw the ball fall into the hands of the Bucc’s winger and he dotted down for a converted try after 16 minutes . Coach Willie Faloon could not believe his eyes when a similar mistake ensured that the Bucc’s centre dived over to make the score 17-0 after 20 minutes.
Confidence was flowing from the Connacht side now and another converted try put them 24 nil up after 27 minutes. Armagh couldn’t get into the game and probably kicked away too much possession due to the Buccaneer’s rush defence. They, in turn pumped the ball into the corners and made Armagh try to attack from deep. It was on one such occasion that Ryan Purvis was taken out in the air and the Buccaneer’s openside found himself un the bin. Armagh then put a good spell of rugby together keeping patience and possession. Towards the end of the half, a creative piece of play from the Armagh three quarters enabled captain, Chris Colvin to find a gap and sprint in for a converted try. Armagh then introduced prop, Oisin Kernan for his first AIL game. For someone inexperienced in that position, he acquitted himself well and was prominent around the park in the second half.
The half time whistle went with the scoreline, Buccaneers 24 Armagh 7 and the visitors had a mountain to climb to get anything out of the match.
The interval allowed Armagh to regroup and the second half began with the visitors taking the game to Buccaneers. The home side were guilty on more that one occasion of slowing the game down and the referee penalised them on numerous occasions. On 55 minutes Armagh had an attacking lineout 10 metres from the home team’s line and a well executed lineout enabled hooker, Andrew Smith to power over the line for a converted by Cormac Fox to make the score 24-14. A few minutes later Fox slotted over a penalty to leave it a one score game at 24-17 and remarkably Armagh were back in the game.
Try as they could to level the scores, the visitors pounded the Buccaneer line, but could not manage to breech a solid home defense. The last quarter saw Buccaneers hanging on for a vital 4 points with the final score 24-17. A loosing bonus point for city of Armagh was some consolation after a shocking first 20.
The Armagh coaching team made no excuses after the match. Simply put, nobody can afford to be off the pace so much in the first half, enabling their opposition to race into a 24-0 lead and expect to come back to win. A hard week of training will be needed to prepare them for a vital game at home against Naas this Saturday at the Palace Grounds.