City of Armagh eager to make the most of home comforts in play-off semi-final against UCC, says Chris Parker

​Chris Parker’s side finished ninth in Division 1A after being leapfrogged by UCD on the final day of the regular season and now host UCC in the semi-final at the Palace Ground.

The Cork students finished fourth in Division 1B as results in round 18 went their way.

“I suppose we're still in the fight, you know, we're not gone yet, we'd have hoped to have clung on to eighth place, but it didn't materialise that way, but we have another chance,” stated Parker.

“We just need to make sure that we give ourselves one more chance next Saturday as well.

“We've discussed how our performances throughout the year that whilst we didn't get over the line at times, our performances have been good at home.

“With junior rugby and stuff off, you hope to get a bit of a crowd in and a decent atmosphere around it all, so we're hoping home advantage can make a bit of a difference for us.”

UCC won nine and lost nine of their league games but picked up 12 try scoring-bonus points and five losing bonus-points.

Parker stated: “They're an interesting team, they possess a lot of threats. Michael Foy has been the standout for the under-20s so far this year and is a very accomplished player for an under-20.

“Ben O'Connor played the other week for them, who has got URC caps, Emerging Ireland and stuff, so they have a lot of threats.

“There's guys that we would have played three years ago still there who have just matured into extremely good club players.

“They're a side we're extremely wary of. I don't think you look at it as they got into fourth on the last day of the season. They’ve got a lot of threats, one of the top scorers in 1B on a wing.

“They'll be fairly confident I would imagine with the hard tracks at this stage of the season. That will suit them as a university side, so it has all the ingredients for a great encounter.”

Parker is confident of getting a result if Armagh perform to the best of their capabilities.

“We need to keep our standards where they have been,” he stressed. “We dropped off a bit there around the Garryowen game and we improved against Mary's and were better against Hinch, we battled through with key players getting injured and lads just stepping up.

“I think if we can just look after the ball and not give them transition ball, which they've thrived upon in the fixtures that I've seen and just control possession, I think we'll give ourselves a real opportunity.

“It is another game, you don't want to make it into something that it's not really and put too much pressure on the group. It's a game of rugby, we've played plenty of them this year.

“Green pitch, white lines, two sets of posts, just go out and do what they've done all year and hopefully it's good enough.”

Lewis Finlay and Charlie Worth are unavailable, Ulster hooker James McCormick has been released, while Ross Taylor is fit to play.