City of Armagh 2nd XV 50. Banbridge 2nd XV 9

Thursday 30th December 2021
Report by Evan Morton

City of Armagh Seconds hosted their counterparts from Banbridge in the quarter final of the Millar McCall Wylie Junior Cup on the Thursday evening after Christmas. Conditions were dreadful with heavy rain all evening but a large crowd of spectators had gathered at the Palace Grounds, keen to see the local derby cup match. Despite the awful weather, it was the home team that progressed to the cup semi-final stage following a comprehensive 50 points to 9 victory, all the more remarkable, given the Armagh side played for 70 minutes with 14 men.

The home side kicked off and within a minute found themselves down to 14 with David Agnew sin binned for tripping a Banbridge player chasing a kick. On 5 minutes, a penalty in front of the posts was then missed and the Seconds had got off to a poor start. Amends were soon made when Bann coughed up posession on their 22 and Alex Johnston broke down the wing and after a scramble on the tryline, a try was awarded for Armagh to open their account. Richard Reaney had also found his range and kicked a great conversion from the touchline for a 7 nil lead with 7 minutes played.

On 10 minutes, Banbridge got on the scoreboard when outhalf Harry Bird kicked a penalty to reduce arrears to 7-3. From the restart, the visitors then carried well out of defence and won a penalty on the halfway line. Kicking into the corner, Armagh stole the lineout and cleared the danger and then won a penalty 10 metres inside their own half. Captain, Ollie Miller took a quick tap and showing tremendous pace, sprinted 60 metres evading the Bann defence to score a brilliant individual try. The conversion was unsuccessful but Armagh were now ahead 12-3. Bann responded with another penalty kicked into the Armagh 22 but once again, the home pack stole possession. Another penalty to the visitors saw them elect for a scrum but a knock on at the base spoiled their attacking opportunity. On 20 minutes the match took a sudden twist when Armagh’s Lee Irvine was penalised for a high tackle just inside the Armagh half. The referee adjudged there was contact to the head and issued a red card to the young hooker. The resultant penalty was sent into the corner but the Bann lineout was not straight and Reaney cleared with a strong touchline kick.

With the extra man, Banbridge then had a spell of pressure in the Armagh 22 and a successful penalty narrowed the gap to 12-6 with half an hour played. On 33 minutes, outhalf, Reaney kicked again for territory and the Bann defender was beaten to the ball by winger David Agnew who sprinted 35 metres for his first try of the evening, making up for his earlier misdemeanour. Reaney converted and Armagh Seconds now led 19-6 as the whistle went for the halftime interval.

The second half commenced with Bann keen to get back into the match given their numerical advantage.
The visitors however were stunned just two minutes in, when Armagh full back Dylan Nelson crossed the white wash for his team’s fourth try. Another superb touchline conversion from Reaney gave Armagh an impressive 26-6 lead. Banbridge then had an attacking spell in Armagh territory when an interception brought play up to the Armagh 22. The Bann pack carried well up to the Armagh line with a series of pick and drives but a knock on in the wet conditions let Armagh clear their line. Another fine touchline kick by Richard Reaney was gathered by Nelson and the fullback almost scored again only for a knock on over the tryline.
A Banbridge penalty then saw the visitors go for the posts and Bird reduced arrears to 26-9.

Centre John Faloon then put in a neat grubber kick into the opposition 22 and a Bann knock on at the lineout set up another Armagh attack. A home penalty was converted by Reaney to edge the Seconds further ahead 29-9 with 20 minutes remaining. The home side continued to dominate and Reaney’s kicking game had Bann on the backfoot. Eoin O’Hagan had a couple of charges to the tryline and another attack was stalled by a deliberate knock on with the Bann offender sent to the sinbin. A five metre scrum to Armagh led to try number five for the home side when number 8, James Crummie picked up and drove over for Reaney to convert and increase Armagh’s lead to 36-9.

The Seconds sixth try was the best of the night, with Dylan Nelson stripping Bann of possession on halfway and then slick inter-passing sending David Agnew over for his second try of the match. The conversion made the scoreline 43-9. Armagh’s final try of the evening came from another kick from Reaney that Bann failed to hold. The ball was recycled and Ryan Finlay broke up field before passing to David Agnew for the winger to complete his hattrick of tries. The conversion from Reaney brought the match to a close with the final scoreline 50-9, a tremendous result for the Second XV.

Armagh Seconds now join Clogher Valley, Instonians and Cooke RFC in the hat for the draw for the semi-finals, due to be played on April 29th with the final in May. In the meantime, its back to league action for Armagh Seconds with Malone the visitors to the Palace Grounds on Saturday January 8th.