Enniskillen had the better of the opening exchanges and although they kept Armagh inside their own half, it was clear that the visitors had a very well organised defence. With 10 minutes gone the home side had a chance to capitalise on their dominance but the penalty shot from Craig Johnston skimmed the outside of the uprights.
Armagh began to tip the balance at the rucks and made good breaks through their locks and props. In this they were assisted by Enniskillen who failed to go low at the tackle allowing the visitors to make substantial gains in the centre of the park. It was after a series of such breaks that a stretched Enniskillen defence let Armagh in for the only try of the match. There was some debate about the success of the conversion before the Armagh linesman generously called it out and the visitors went into the halftime recess 5-0 up.
Even though Enniskillen 2ndXV had been obliged to give up a couple of key players to the 1stXV, they were still able, thanks to their considerable squad, to make a number of changes in personnel for the second half and although their rucking and scrummaging improved considerably the disruption to the teams’ organisation also proved to be considerable. This lack of continuity was further exacerbated by injuries to their captain, Jordan Thompson, centre Conor Blackwell-Smyth and out-half Mark Crawford. The home team won their fair share of ball in both loose and set plays but did not look particularly dangerous out wide, an area they have dominated in recent games. They did, however, do enough to stop Armagh scoring any further tries. It was only indiscipline, while ‘advising’ the referee, that led to the team being marched 30 metres back down the pitch and giving Armagh an easy 3 point penalty.
It was about the only easy aspect of a very tough and bruising match with the continual rain making flowing rugby difficult for both sides. The final result of 8-0 to Armagh was a fair score but in such a close match the spoils could have gone either way.
