City of Armagh were the visitors to Templeville Road on a gloriously mild sunny Saturday afternoon but it was St. Mary’s who made hay with a 5-try victory which brought the visitor’s recent winning run to an abrupt halt.

Report and pictures by John Crothers

The Dublin men survived an opening five minutes of solid Armagh pressure which forced the concession of three penalties before a promising break out of the home 22 was called for a forward pass, a hint of what was to come on a day when handling proved inexplicably tricky for both sides at times.

An early Armagh attack down the right flank looked sure to see them open the scoring but the pass inside didn’t go to hand and the move broke down.

The visitors paid the price for failing to convert their early superiority to scoreboard pressure as Mary’s right wing Matt Timmons intercepted and ran in under the posts to make it 7 – 0 on 10 minutes.

Not learning from their mistakes, a Hail Mary pass put the home side under needless pressure although Armagh were unable to convert the resulting penalty on the quarter hour.

The home side began to get a foothold in the game as the end of the first quarter beckoned, but it was Armagh right wing Andrew Willis who was next to cross, as the visitors continued to press down the right wing. The conversion came back off the post to leave it at 7-5.

Mary’s blew a good attacking position just on the half hour with hands in the ruck and much of the rest of the first period saw both sides stymied by handling errors with multiple promising opportunities breaking down as a result.

An Armagh penalty saw them briefly take the lead before Myles Carey went over in the left corner, another breakaway try with Conor Dean‘s conversion bringing us to halftime at 14-8.

Mary’s clearly got the hairdryer at halftime and accordingly started the second half much more positively than the first. Hooker and captain, Richie Halpin, showed nice feet to slip through a gap and put blindside Daniel Lyons in to see the home side go 21-8 up with 5 minutes gone.

Dean and Carey combined for a brace of home scores, the hattrick for the outside centre following a deft chip over the top by his flyhalf partner. The result was put beyond any doubt when, following a hefty scuffle in the middle of the park, Armagh were reduced to 14 when one of their subs earned a straight red for his part in the festivities.

The majority of the last quarter was played in the away half although a final Armagh rally saw Evin Crummie pull one back for the visitors with the last action of the game.

ST. MARY’S COLLEGE: Ruairi Shields, Matt Timmons, Myles Carey, Mick O’Gara, Craig Kennedy, Conor Dean, Mark Fogarty, Niall McEniff, Richie Halpin (C), Mick McCormack, Liam Corcoran, Ian Wickham, Daniel Lyons, Niall Hurley, Ronan Watters. Replacements: Steven O’Brien, Padraig Dundon, Loris Nikolov, Ryan O’Loughlin, Colm Reilly, Dave Fanagan.

CITY OF ARMAGH: Kyle Faloon, Andrew Willis, Chris Colvin (C), Evin Crummie, Matthew Hooks, Harry Boyd, Alex Johnston, Paul Mullen, Jonny Morton, Philip Fletcher, John Glasgow Josh McKinley, James Hanna, Ryan O’Neill, Neil Faloon. Replacements: Jack Treanor, Peter Lamb, Ryan Finlay, James Morton, Gerard Treanor, Tim McNiece.

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