Shannon RFC 26 City of Armagh RFC 14

Saturday 9th November 2019
Report by Chris Parker

City of Armagh made the long journey to Limerick, buoyed by a win on the road last weekend at Navan. On the back pitch at Thomond Park, it was the visitors who kicked off on a blustery, autumnal day with the swirling wind making kicking difficult for both sides.

The home side started the stronger and enjoyed some early field position due to errors from Armagh. The huge Shannon pack however, couldn’t find a way to breach the Armagh defence and this allowed scrum half, Gerard Treanor to clear his lines following a turn over. After 8 minutes, the visitors enjoyed their first foray into Shannon territory. It proved fruitful as after the ball was recycled on a number of occasions by the pack, it was moved to winger, Shea O’Brien who burst between two defenders to score under the posts. Outhalf, Cormac Fox added the extras to give Armagh a 7-0 lead.

For the next ten minutes Armagh enjoyed the majority of possession, but found it difficult to break down the well organised Shannon defence. In the second quarter, gaps began to open, with Neil Faloon and Robert Whitten making notable breaches, deep into the Shannon half, only for the attacks to come to nothing and Shannon relieved the pressure.

The final ten minutes before half time belonged to the home side as they ran in three tries. The first came when it looked like Armagh had worked a try scoring opportunity, but a grubber kick was blocked and it bounced kindly into the hands of Jamie McGarry and the dangerous Shannon full back showed good pace to sprint clear from 65 metres out and touch down on the left. The conversion was unsuccessful.

Following this set back, on 38 minutes, Shannon moved into the lead when an interception by Pa Ryan, saw him run in from the half way line for a soft score. Ben Daly split the uprights with his conversion and the hosts led 12-7. The side compounded Armagh’s woes with a third score in first half injury time when Captain Lee Nicholas powered over under the posts. Daly again converted and Shannon were over the moon to go in at the break 19-7 ahead.

The second half commenced and soon became a stalemate with Armagh throwing everything at the blue and black wall that was the Shannon defence. The visitors enjoyed the majority of possession and territory and following a series of drives at the tryline, it was captain Robert Whitten that burrowed over. Fox converted and Armagh were now within a score at
19-14.

Armagh controlled the territory but Shannon managed to keep them out of the 22 and when they turned over the ball through scrum half Keith Kavanagh, they managed to relieve any pressure. On 65 minutes, Shannon grabbed their fourth score when a box kick was partially charged down by Armagh and once again it bounced kindly for a Shannon player.
Play was brought into the Armagh half and an excellently judged crossfield kick from Daly saw Nathan Randles collect.
The Armagh cover scrambled in defence, but three excellent offloads from the home side saw Kelvin Brown go in under the posts for a super score from the home team. Daly converted to push Shannon 12 points ahead.

Armagh created a number of opportunities to gain a try and a losing bonus point from the match, but a mixture of inaccurate attack and excellent defence saw Shannon gain possession and clear their lines to gain a deserved victory.

There were a lot of positives for the Orchard County men despite the result. Shannon were well organised and took advantage of errors from the visitors in a very clinical attacking display, something Armagh will try to emulate next weekend when they welcome undefeated, Old Wesley to the Palace Grounds. The Dublin side’s match with Navan was postponed at the weekend, so they will be fresh for the challenge with City of Armagh which kicks off at 2.30pm.