On an autumnal morning in Armagh the inclement weather made of a tough 3rd match if the season. From the kick-off Armagh took the game to the travel weary ERGS defence which stood strong and resisted countless early attacks of the line. led by Captain Paul McConkey’s quick ball form the rucks and scrums the ERGS team began to gather their momentum and fight back resulting in much of the first half being a blow for blow exchange hampered by extremely wet conditions. It simply wasn’t a day for expansive rugby and despite the valiant efforts by No. 10 Shay Owen and centres Daniel Johnston and James Broomfield, the ball persisted to be too slippy to allow wingers Michael Smith and George Pattison to make any significant ground from clean ball. With 5 mins to go before the half-time whistle, the Armagh attack then got a lucky break and managed to slip through for their first converted try of the game.
The second half started in much the same way. Armagh came on strong and despite the best efforts of full back Harry Ingram to defend against a strong attack by the Armagh 10 and centre the home side quickly crossed the line to move the score to 12 – 0. It was now to become a test of character for the soaked ERGS side. There was to be no give from the referee who persisted to penalise the visiting side for hands in the ruck but discipline remained strong and momentum grew. Excellent scrummaging led by No.8 Daniel Cathro and quick spreading of the ball by McConkey finally allowed Shay Owen to side step his opposite man and slip through to gain 5 points. The conversion was nail-bitingly close but the strong cross winds blew the ball off course causing it to ricochet off the posts. The ERGS side where not giving up yet and still had 10 minutes left to play. Suddenly a weary Armagh side found themselves on the back-foot as the ERGS pack started to maul them up the pitch and provide secure ball for the back line to work with. Daniel Johnston continued to put his body on the line tolerating several big tackles from his opposite man, his resilience paying off as he delivered the crucial pass that gave James Bloomfield his chance to run for the line; the Armagh winger made the tackle just 3 metres out and despite the quick arrival of ERGS support the referee then blew for probably the most questionable penalty of the match ‘holding on!’. With minutes to go the ball was regained from the Armagh kick as Harry Ingram collected the high ball and made the off-load, solid route 1 running and off loading from Devin Harron to Timothy Weir to Peter Read to Stewart Brown and onto Nathan Cullinan gave the crowd the hope that it could at least be a draw but as the soap like ball then spilt forward as it made its way across the pitch the final whilst blew. Final score 12-5.
