Armagh too strong for Bangor in SONI league

Upritchard Park was looking even prettier than usual as it hosted a Ladies Day reception and lunch. For once, the hard work by the volunteer grounds team took second place as a mixture of players, sponsors, wives, girlfriends, mothers and friends enjoyed some well-deserved hospitality by way of a pre-lunch drinks reception provided courtesy of the Copeland Distillery and Neill Wines, followed by lunch and musical entertainment. Such was the success of the day that the club is already looking forward to hosting another similar event later in the season.

In a particularly skewed division 2 of the SONI Premiership, Bangor faced this normally improbable fixture against Armagh, who are a full 3 divisions higher in the All Ireland Leagues, more in hope than expectation. Having won the Ulster Senior Cup and Bateman Cup last season, Armagh had not surprisingly traded their standing in the SONI league in order to achieve their cup successes. However, this is not without its problems as Armagh have now found themselves facing much lower competition in the run-up to the start of the All Ireland League next weekend. By contrast, Bangor would have been under no pretensions as to the task ahead of them in facing such tough opposition, but in doing so were looking to use the experience to develop and improve their game.

As Bangor kicked off, it was no surprise that the opening period of play was mostly in one direction, as Armagh showed their pace and passing skills to good effect, running in four tries and two conversions within the first 25 minutes. However, despite taking their chances well, on more than one occasion their scoring opportunity was the direct result of a Bangor error.

To Bangor’s credit, the remainder of the first half belonged to them. The combination of a solid scrum and more confident backline provided a better attacking platform which, through sustained pressure, kept play largely within the Armagh twenty two. The visitors’ defence was solid but made to work hard to keep the Bangor advances at bay. In the end, Bangor could find no way through and the sides turned around at half time with the score remaining at 0-24.

If Bangor had designs on picking up where they left off, their second half couldn’t have got off to a worse start. A mistake at their lineout was picked up by Armagh’s Barry Finn who ran through unchallenged to score another converted try. However, from this early setback, Bangor quickly regained their composure and for the next 25 minutes enjoyed most of the attacking possession. During this spell of play, their perseverance finally paid off when a break through the centre was switched to the right hand side where the forwards were gathered. With the ball in Jamie Clegg’s hands and supporting players driving him on, he forced his way over for a well-deserved try in the corner. Mark Widdowson’s touchline conversion was on target, making the score now 7-31.

Some ragged play was punctuated with injuries and a yellow card for Armagh, but as the game entered the final 10 minutes, it looked like Bangor had weathered the pressure better and could take some comfort in being on equal terms, at least with regard to points scored, during the second half. Unfortunately, Bangor’s problems at the lineout persisted and a quick Armagh counter-attack led to another try, which was then added to within the last minute of the game to make the scoreline a somewhat flattering 7-50 win for the visitors.

Without doubt, the strong Armagh side were deserved winners, but it’s fair to say that Bangor gave a good account of themselves and will probably have benefited more from today’s game than their opponents did. There are still some areas of Bangor’s game that need tidying up, but there are plenty of positives that the players and coaches can take forward into the AIL competition that starts next weekend at home against Cork side Sundays Well.