Armagh2 v Portadown1 Match Report 08-12-2018

10 Dec 2018 by City of Armagh Rugby Club

Armagh Seconds Win Derby Thriller
Armagh seconds travelled to Portadown to play a conference league one game which turned out to be a thriller with both teams providing plenty of entertainment. With the firsts playing Naas at the Palace grounds and there being a few late call ups, the seconds welcomed Matthew Steenson, Andrew Magowan and Michael Rolston into the squad. Armagh played into the breeze in the first half and proceeded to go through the gears moving the ball with confidence and on 5 minutes had a line out five metres out. Kennedy collected the ball with Steenson playing at 6 receiving and showing good feet to crash over for the opening score. Cormac Fox kicked the difficult conversion to give Armagh the perfect start, 7-0. On 14 minutes, Kyle Faloon made a good break on the home 10 metre line to beat 2 defenders to touch down at the posts for a converted try. With the forwards working hard for possession and Philip Matthews Pete Lamb, and John Clark providing a solid platform in the scrums, quick ball was moved left by Gerard Treanor through the hands to Ollie Millar on the wing who made it in at the corner. The conversion was missed on this occasion however the score was pushed out 19-0 for the visitors. Pete Lamb made a good break up the middle for Luke Crozier to collect and touch down at the posts for another converted try, 26-0. Shortly after, a great break by Ryan Morton paved the way for Millar to collect and go over for his second to bring the score to 33-0. At this stage Armagh started to concede penalties and after three in a row, Portadown scored at the posts for their opening points. There was still time for left before halftime for Portadown to add another converted try to reduce Armagh’s lead to 33-14. The coaches pointed to the error count as one of the reasons why Portadown were mounting a comeback. The second half resumed in the same vein with Portadown adding 2 more tries, one of them converted to close the gap to 33-26. Captain Stephen Morton rallied his troops and shortly after, Jack Treanor made the hard yards for Fox to kick to the corner. A Portadown mistake from the resulting lineout led to Clarke snapping up loose ball for Stuart Lester and Crozier to combine, with the latter cutting a good angle to go over at the posts. Fox knocked over the conversion to stretch the lead to 40-26. Portadown attacked again from the visitors 10 metre line and an alert Millar picked off a loose pass off to intercept and race off downfield to go over at the posts. Fox added the simple conversion and the referee blew for fulltime with the score at Armagh 47 Portadown 26. Lessons will have been learned from this game regarding game management and keeping to the game plan. Next game up is Grosvenor at home on the 29th December.

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