Lisburn Thirds suffer narrow home defeat

Armagh Thirds 17

Lisburn’s 3rd XV fell short by 3 points for the second fixture in a row against a very strong Armagh Thirds in the clash at Eglantine Road on Saturday.

Two early tries for the visitors demonstrated that the Lisburn men needed to up their game considerably in the first half.

Lisburn continued to go at the Armagh team with Simon Gilmore playing his part in disrupting the majority of the Armagh attacks.

The first half became much more evenly contested with no further scores and Armagh going into the break 12-0 up.

The first 15 minutes of the second half demonstrated some of the best rugby seen by a Lisburn team this season so far but ended with Armagh scoring a breakaway try with a cross field kick taken by one of the Armagh centres.

Despite conceding the try against the run of play, the Lisburn pack then began to take control and following a well taken lineout and maul, Thomas Thompson fought his way over the line to give Lisburn 5 points.

Stewart Pringle ensured maximum damage by converting.

The last 20 minutes was an incredibly physical quarter given that both sides could feel a turn in the tempo of the match; however, both sets of defences stayed strong.

Lisburn won a penalty with 60 seconds to go and once again Pringle found touch.

The Lisburn pack took the lineout well and mauled the 20 plus yards up to the Armagh line with some great work from Craig McConnell.

Finally, Phil Jefferson got the ball over the line for his 8th try of the season and Stewart Pringle turned 5 points into 7.

Unfortunately, that was all there was to be in the match and the Lisburn team picked up another loss in a season where they have failed to convert performance into points.

The Plough Inn’s Man Of The Match award went to Richard Henning for his work in the loose and lineouts throughout the game.

After the game he was presented with his award by Club Chairman, Robert Pringle.