01/09/2026
City of Armagh RFC 7 Ballynahinch RFC 35
Saturday 29th August 2026
Report by Richard Black
City of Armagh played their first competitive game of the season against a strong Ballynahinch side in the round robin series of the Senior Cup. The side picked for Saturday’s game was almost unrecognizable to the first team of last year with several new debutants. These included Rio McDonagh at tight head prop. Rio played in the 2022-23 schools cup for Wallace HS and then played senior rugby at Banbridge where he made 14 AIL appearances. Sam Glasgow came back into the side having only played 3 games last year. Gerard Treanor has also returned from being player coach with Monaghan and his experience of 74 AIL caps with Dungannon, Queens and Armagh showed. His half back partner was Josh Lowey who has played only 2 senior games in his life. On the left wing was Lucas Armstrong making a senior debut with Luke McCall at inside centre with only 7 senior appearances. At full back was Luke Crozier who made his senior debut as well. The substitute bench again had little experience of senior rugby with Philip Nicholl only featuring in 7 AIL games. Dan Reynolds was also on the bench making his senior debut.
In contrast, Hinch had a fairly experienced side out with Clayton Milliken, Brad Luney and Declan Horrax in the pack. Their backline wasn't bad either with the talented Mark Best in the centre, Aaron Sexton on the wing and Conor Rankin, all ex Ulster players turning out.
The opening half was even enough although Hinch went into the lead through their flying winger Sexton after 15 minutes. Armagh struck back through a rolling maul with Finn Fenhert claiming the try. Josh Lowey converted to score his first senior points. Armagh were certainly holding their own, especially in the scrum when the front row of Karlson, Fenhert and McDonagh won a series of penalties. The only downside of their game was that the lineout was a bit wobbly. Just when we all thought that the half time whistle was about to blow, Hinch increased their lead through scrum half Stevenson running on the shoulder of the impressive Ryan Connolly to score under the posts.
Half time score, City of Armagh 7 Ballynhinch 14.
Armagh started off the second half brightly and should have levelled the score, but the referee failed to see a blatant foul. The ball was turned over and quickly transferred to Sexton who went in at the corner. After 15 minutes. He completed his hatrick 10 minutes later with another opportunist try. Armagh were now clearly flagging especially when full back, Crozier was sinbinned for a high tackle. Down to 14 men, Armagh had to cover a lot of ground and it was even harder to take when the Hinch open side flanker went in for their fifth try. To add to their misery, Conor Rankin was in fine kicking form as he converted all five tries to leave the final score Armagh 7, Hinch 35.
Coach Parker emptied his bench to give all the subs a run out. Bigger challenges lie ahead with a tough encounter in Banbridge next week. Banbridge, now coached by Neil Doak, ran up 8 tries to beat Dungannon 46-14. It was still an encouraging start with a lot of young players getting valuable experience.
