RAINEY III 10 – 38 BALLYMENA IV
Rainey welcomed near neighbours Ballymena to Hatrick Park for both side’s first warm up match before the season’s kick-off in September, and on the warmest day of the summer so far, Rainey started at a blistering pace.
The back row trio of A.Davis and the Patterson brothers dominated the early proceedings ensuring quick ball from the rucks for new recruit P.Dillon to release last season’s player of the year, C.Moran in for the first try of the match.
With K.McCann constantly hitting his targets in the lineouts and some excellent lifting by F.Mulholland and R.Convery, the Magherafelt lads really should have increased their lead, but some slips, fumbles and sloppy passes ensured at least another 4 or 5 try scoring chances went begging.
Credit to Ballymena, who capitalised when Rainey decided to bring on their substitutions early. They then began to dominate and ran in several tries as holes started to appear when Rainey’s defence began to tire and get complacent. The second half did see some more good spells of play by Rainey, R.Deehan the stand-out forward during the game.
C.Moran scored after Rainey’s best move of the game when some good offloading set him free out wide. But all to often a basic error was pounced on by the Braidmen and converted into points.
With several more expericenced players to return in the next few weeks, Rainey can build on this early lesson and ensure the errors are cut out when Bangor visit for the first league game of the season on Saturday 8th September.
Team : R.Deehan, K.McCann, R.Convery, D.Kidd, A.Sterling, F.Mulholland, I.Patterson, A.Davis, C.Patterson (c), C.Magee, P.Dillon, JP.Clayton, C.Moran, D.Holgate, G.Walker, C.Moore, M.Lee, S.Birt
RAINEY 18 – 40 CITY OF DERRY
Ulster League 1st September 2012
Scorers: O’Connor(2*Pen, 1*Conv), O’Neill(1*Try), Campbell(1*Try)
Photos CLICK HERE
Clubs see the opening fixtures of the Ulster League as an opportunity to prepare for the start of the AIL and most will argue that performances are more important than results, but after two below par displays, Rainey know that they have a lot of work to do before Nenagh come north at the end of the month.
A number of players are resting niggling injuries, while many of those on duty are not doing themselves justice. Ball retention has to improve dramatically and the unforced errors tally must be drastically reduced. While City of Derry were good value for their 40-18 victory at Hatrick Park, Rainey gifted them a couple of their six tries, five converted by out-half Peoples. Rainey showed in spurts what they could do, but all too often the supporting player could not hold on to the ball and any impetus gained was lost.
Rainey struggled to get their hands on the ball in the first ten minutes as Derry dominated and it took a good Rainey scrum to help them out of a hole. A quickly taken penalty brought Derry their opener before the first of five yellow cards was flashed for an innoculous offence. They struck again when Rainey threw out bad ball instead of using the wind to relieve the pressure.
Left-wing Logue was denied by the covering Campbell after a scorching run. An injury to centre Montgomery forced Rainey into a number of switches with O’Connor moving to out-half. He opened Rainey’s account after 28 minutes and as they finally began to show some urgency, a great chance was lost. Dysart, McCluggage, Campbell and Donaghy combined along the touchline, but Stewart could not hold the final pass. Right on the half-time whistle, O’Connor made it 14-6 from a wide angle.
Clarke and Lamberton gave the home crowd something to cheer about, but the handling of players in support undid their good work. Two missed tackles proved costly and when they opted to keep the ball alive under pressure rather than use the touchline, Derry made them pay again. Those tries from Patton, Funston and Logue left them 33-6 clear at the end of the third quarter.
A penalty to the corner gave Rainey a good platform and after getting away with a fumble, they managed to recycle possession for flanker O’Neill to score. A careless final pass cost Derry a certain try, but, after being held up, Baird came into the line to break through at the posts. Rainey saved their best passage of play for the last two minutes, a series of drives and a little break by scrum-half McCluggage ending with Campbell crossing in the corner.
TEAM : M.O’Connor, A.Campbell, W.Montgomery, M.McClelland, R.Lamberton, G.Martin, R.Hill, K.Donaghy, N.O’Kane, P.Stewart, R.McKernan, C.O’Neill, T.Barker, A.Harbinson.
REPLACEMENTS :A.McCluggage, A.Dysart, A.Clarke, P.Boyle, S.Sufferin.
