I certainly hadn’t intended on using up one of my precious Saturday afternoon photography slots on such a cack competition as the Conference (does anyone know how it works?) but, as I only found out that the Premiership 2 game at Belfast Harlequins was off when I arrived at Deramore, it was the closest game I could find.

Having said that, I really did enjoy this one, which was pretty close throughout despite Instonians dominating the scoreboard. There were a few mistakes early on but it was an enjoyable game, good skills, plenty of effort, a nice edge at times and a bit of fun.

Instonians dominated the bulk of the first half, restricting Armagh to the occasional break. The visitors defence stood firm and Instonians maybe over elaborated things at times but the game certainly sparked to life when Armagh’s Aaron Woods charged down a clearance kick to collect the rebound and score in only their third foray into the Inst 22. I made the conversion from Matthew Hooks good and Armagh took an unlikely 0 – 7 lead into the break.

The home side came storming back at the start of the second half with Jordan Heatley crossing out wide for Matthew Keane to convert and tie the game at 7 all. Minutes later Hooks sliced through the Instonians’ midfield for an unconverted try putting the visitors back in front 7 – 12.

Instonians looked to their pack and they came up trumps, winning a penalty shortly after, for Keane to convert, before second row Terry Combes finished off a series of drives close to the Armagh line with a score close to the posts. Keane knocked over the conversion and he was stepping up minutes later to covert Heatley’s second after the Inst winger ran in the restart kick.

The score had rattled along to 24 – 12 in Inst’s favour and they looked well in control. Armagh’s effort’s were hampered further when their second row bruiser Glasgow was yellow carded for team offences and Inst were able to wrap the game up with a bonus point try from prop Jay Reiback who dashed from, what must now be, 30 yards out to score under the posts. Keane, of course, converted to give a final score of Instonians 31 City of Armagh II 12.

Note: There is a difference in this and the official score which is given as 31 – 13 in Inst’s favour.

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