R.S Armagh 29-28 Down High
After a long journey to Armagh the guys knew that it wouldn’t be easy, especially in the blustery and wet conditions.

The boys in green got off to a flyer, forcing Armagh into errors and conceding penalties. Charlie Power kicked to touch and from the resulting line-out, skipper William Martin carried the ball past the white line. Reuben Ashe added the extras with a fine kick.

We didn’t stop there; good work from James McBride and Chris Beattie gave Power another chance to kick to touch. This time Michael Reynolds won the line-out and went on to touch down in the corner, Ashe once again got the conversion.

However Armagh’s number 8 made a few very good runs to set up play in Down’s 22. Some Quick play from the Armagh backs eventually saw their centre touch down, to leave the score at 14-5.

The Down High heads dropped a little after this and some sloppy play and missed tackles led to their strong inside centre making a run and scoring an unconverted try. Down High went into half-time 14-10 up.

Down High got off to a good start in the 2nd half, when effective play from Keers, Power, Frazer and Leckey in the back line, lead to a ruck set up in the opponents 22. McBride managed to score between the sticks to leave the score at 21-10. A few minutes later Leckey’s sheer pace on the wing allowed him over for another try. The conversion was added taking the score to 28-10.

Then we got bad news that William had to leave, this was a big blow for the team and Armagh took advantage. Their powerful number 8 driving through our defence to score and the extras added. Then Armagh soaked up pressure from us before shifting the ball to the centre who took advantage of a dog-legged defence, this time missing the kick.

So it went into the last play of the match, we were defending on our 22. The number 8 picked up and got to the 5 metre line. Despite an excellent tackle from substitute John Hyndmen, their man was able to offload and they touched down in the corner. So in the end it was down to the conversion kick.  Sadly a big charge from the Down High players wasn’t enough to put the kicker off, as he split the posts to give Armagh victory by a point.

Man of the match: James McBride

By Charlie Power