Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

Both sides showed a number of changes from the previous Saturday's encounter. Up front Bann fielded Alan Conn, Chris Allen and Jonny McKim in place of the unavailable or injured Colin Bickerstaff, Stephen Irvine and Andy Brown. But the changes had no discernible impact on the home pack's effectiveness, and certainly a dominant scrum again proved to be the foundation on which the success was built.

With the help of the elements and Bann's proclivity to concede penalties, Armagh enjoyed the early territory. Indeed but for a last-ditch tackle by scrum-half Adam Ervine, winger Josh Morton would have opened the scoring for the visitors in the 16th minute.

Bann broke out of defensive mode midway through the half, with Michael Cromie, Allen and Brian Hanna spearheading the charge upfield that was to see them play most of the remainder of the first period in opposition territory. Armagh held out against a series of 5-metre scrums and were fortunate that the unsighted referee failed to award Simon McKinstry a try after the Bann skipper had capitalised on good work by hooker David Weir to pick up and cross the whitewash from close range.

Then with virtually the last play of the half Andrew Kirkwood just failed to collect Brendan Ward's long pass with the try line beckoning.

The second half re-started in deteriorating overhead conditions and a dropped pass in the Armagh midfield, hacked ahead by Andrew Morrison, had the visitors scrambling to defend their line. Weir's half-time replacement, Ulster U-20 hooker Jonny Murphy, broke through the front-line Armagh defence from a ruck just inside the "22". When he was brought down Allen was on hand to burst through and make the try line from three metres range, with Robin Thompson adding the conversion.

The Bann out-half slotted over a penalty on the hour and as Armagh struggled to create a threat to the home line the ten point margin looked good enough to see Bann through. But to put the result beyond doubt, full-back Ward capped a fine individual display by conjuring up a try with seven minutes remaining. Getting possession 12 metres out he grubbered neatly behind the defence and showed an impressive turn of pace to win the race to the ball short of the line, with his momentum on the greasy surface taking him over.

So Bann join City of Derry, Ballymena and Instonians in the last four of the province's premier knock-out competition. They have been there before, including one memorable game at Ravenhill against Dungannon when current coach Daniel Soper was on the starting XV. Like the coaches of all the sides in the last four, he will be hoping for a home draw in the semis, now that Ravenhill is only being made available for the final.

And certainly, given the improving form of the squad, he would not fear any of the other teams. But that is for another day, and his thoughts, and those of his players, will already have turned to Saturday's Ulster Bank League game at Highfield.

With two wins from three, Bann will want to underline their credentials as serious promotion candidates by winning at the Munster venue, a feat they have achieved in past campaigns. And with Soper likely to have close to a full squad available to select from, he will travel in optimistic mood.

Bann squad against Armagh:- Brendan Ward, Stephen Cowan, Andrew Morrison, Jonny Little, Andrew Kirkwood, Robin Thompson, Adam Ervine, Michael Cromie, David Weir, Brian Hanna, Chris Allen, Simon McKinstry (Capt), Dale Carson, Jonny McKim, Alan Conn. Replacements:- Jonny Murphy, Paul Ross, Jonny Weir, Craig Mulholland, Clark McAllister.