City of Armagh RFC seconds played Banbridge seconds in the second fifteen league on Saturday at Rifle Park in Banbridge.
With several changes to the side from the previous week due to unavailability and injury, Armagh seized the initiative from the kick off to storm up the pitch into home territory.
Banbridge however played their way out from defence and took the lead with an early penalty.
Good driving play from Andrew and James Morton which started at the 10 metre line, led to Philip Matthews forcing his way over for a try to give Armagh the lead at 5-3.
The visitor’s early dominance led to a corker of a try from the half way line after Willis broke left with Glen Faloon spreading the ball out wide for McKeever.
He showed the Bann defence a clean pair of heels to touch down mid way out for another unconverted try, 10-3 to Armagh.
Armagh’s indiscipline led to two successive penalties for Bann to end up 10 metres out from the visitor’s try line.
A poorly defended line-out maul resulted in the Bann number 8 easing over for a try.
The conversion was missed but Bann had closed the gap to 10-8 just before half time.
Luke Crozier had a charge up the middle of the pitch to put Andrew Morton on a run for the line.
However, with a lack of support, the chance was lost and Bann cleared their lines to bring the half to a close.
On the restart, Bann added added a penalty to give them the lead at 11-10.
Armagh retaliated to set up a period of dominance inside Bann’s 22.
Gimeno and Crummie moved the ball left only for McKeever to be stopped short and when play continued with several pick and drives through Kennedy, Matthews and Martin, Barry Finn powered over from close range.
With the conversion by Faloon, Armagh had regained the lead 17-11.
With the backline again making inroads through the home defence, play reached the 22.
After losing possession, Armagh took scrum ball against the head and with Finn and Morton working the ball forward, Peter Starrett broke a tackle to gallop over mid way out, 22-11.
Finn rounded off a sound personal performance with a carbon copy second try to his first to finish the scoring at 27-7.
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