Enniskillen 2nds 3 City of Armagh 3rds 43

Saturday 9th October 2021
Report by Trevor Knipe

City of Armagh Third fifteen continued their excellent run of form with a convincing seven try win over rivals Enniskillen Seconds at Mullaghmeen on Saturday. With the City fielding four teams thirty four enthusiastic players representing the Thirds and Fourths travelled by bus and car to Fermanagh to represent Armagh in their respective leagues.

On an unusually pleasant October afternoon and with Chris Boyd on the whistle it was Armagh that quickly demonstrated their superiority in all areas taking an early 12-0 lead with try’s from Con Oliver and Adam Magowan, the latter converted by captain Andrew Brady. Although the home side got three points from a penalty it transpired that this would be their only score, such was the Armagh strength in forwards and backs both in attack and defence.

James McCall had an excellent game at number 8 taking the ball in line out and loose making hard yards and earning himself the Armagh Brewing Company man of the match award. It was one such attacking move from McCall that led to Armagh’s third try when he broke the defence and passed the ball to Andrew Winder who scored in the right corner. An earlier individual try when McCall spectacularly dived over in the corner was disallowed because of a foot in touch. A video referee might have allowed the try!
Two further try’s closed out the first half, the first from Daryl Morton after a demonstration of great handling skills between scrum half Trevor Girvan, Dan Reynolds and Morton. Dan himself scored from the restart for a 31-3 halftime lead.
A yellow card against Enniskillen was balanced out by one against Gareth Megaw but Armagh were clinical and the home side became more ragged as the game progressed. A try for Sam Shephard and a second for Dan Reynolds with four conversions by Brady see the side firmly at the top of Provincial Premier Division 2 with 19 points from four games.

The Armagh players and scorers were; J Johnston, L Ervine, D Morton (1), A McAlpine, C Oliver (1), G Megaw, R Finlay, J McCall, T Girvan, A Winder (1), A Magowan (1),S Shepard (1), S Megaw, D Reynolds (2), A Brady (4 conversions) K Gallagher and R J McCall.

Next week sees another away trip to Uprichard Park to take on Bangor 2’s. This will be a tough encounter but on current form the team can travel full of confidence.