Randalstown U18s Vs Rainey Old Boys
By Aine Doran
Randalstown U18s secured a hard fought win away to Rainey after a thrilling finish.
Randalstown made the short journey to face Rainey Old Boys in the next round of the League on what proved to be a very wet and windy Saturday morning.
The visitors faced some early pressure from the hosts that resulted in two early replacements. Both Sean O’Rawe and Shea McLaughlin were forced off with injury, being replaced by JJ McKee and John Adair. While Rainey maintained possession of the ball, Randalstown did everything they could to stop them going forward. Paul Johnston, Matthew McCaw, Scott McClay, Ryan Magill and Patrick Mitchell all put in some brilliant tackles. Rainey then tried to kick the ball to relieve some of the pressure but it was expertly taken by Josh Henry, allowing the backs to team up for Paul Johnston to run a fantastic line, unfortunately knocking the ball on just short of the try line.
When Town regained possession again, they showed a lot of promise with McCaw taking a quick tap penalty, Henry this time knocking on the ball in the tough conditions. Rainey then pressed forward despite Matthew McCaw tackling any man that came his way. The hosts touched down under the posts for the opening score in spite of a phenomenal tackle by Patrick Mitchell. The easy conversion went over, making the score 7-0.
From the restart, both Ben Worsley and Stephen Carey made some good breaks but were both stopped before they could reach the line. Rainey then returned the pressure, winning themselves a penalty 5m from Randalstown’s line which they took quickly, scoring a try to make the half time score 12-0.
Randalstown made some changes at half time, bringing on Josh Battishill and Steve Woolley. This time playing downhill, it proved to be the half when things went Randalstown’s way. Early on, Henry and Battishill teamed up with Michael O’Connell, with each player showing expert hands, allowing O’Connell to make a fantastic break to earn precious ground and a penalty. Woolley took a quick tap before passing the ball out to JJ McKee who ran in a lovely score. Unfortunately, the difficult conversion was missed. The score was now 12-5 to Rainey.
Unfortunately Randalstown conceded a penalty just after the restart, with Rainey choosing to kick for the posts to try and extend their lead but the penalty was missed. However, a few minutes later, a Rainey lineout on the 5m line lead to a try, making the score 17-5. Randalstown answered this with a try by Ryan O’Dea, with some great support by Jack Hampton and Daniel McGrandles. Michael O’Connell kicked the conversion to make the score 17-12. Randalstown continued to keep the pressure on Rainey by going through the phases. A Town scrum 10m from the line allowed Jack Hampton to run in another try to level the score at 17 a piece. Unfortunately Hampton was then lost to injury, with Peter Longwell replacing him. The hosts then upped their pace, but a superb tackle by O’Dea slowed them down. Randalstown did however concede a penalty, which Rainey kicked over the posts. The score now stood at 20-17 with just 5 minutes left to play. Town fought hard to keep possession of the ball and were rewarded with an excellent try by Paul Johnston. The conversion looked tough but a fantastic kick by Josh Battishill saw it go over to make the final score 24-20 to Randalstown.
The team worked hard, never letting their heads drop and fully deserved the victory. The coaches and supporters watching the match were extremely proud of the boys and their performance was a fitting tribute to departing coach Mark Hermin.
Every single player on the pitch played well. Matthew McCaw had an excellent first half, Paul Johnston and Ryan O’Dea made some fantastic tackles, Scott McClay displayed some brilliant rucking and Daniel McGrandles showed great character and maturity throughout the match. However, this week Man Of The Match goes to Patrick Mitchell for a great performance right from the first to last whistle.
1.Shea McLaughlin 2.Jack Hampton 3.Ben Worsley 4.Scott McClay 5.Patrick Mitchell 6.Sean O’Rawe 7.Stephen Carey 8.Daniel McGrandles 9.Matthew McCaw 10.Michael O’Connell 11.Josh Henry 12.Ryan O’Dea (C) 13.Paul Johnston 14.Ryan Magill 15.Malachy McIvor 16.John Adair 17.JJ McKee 18.Peter Longwell 19.Steve Woolley 20.Josh Battishill
U16 Rainey Old Boys 22:10 Randalstown
By Sean O’Connor
Randalstown Show Fighting Spirit Against League Leaders.
After a poor start Randalstown U16’s put on a sterling performance to fight their way back into the game. This contest, against the undefeated league leaders, would have finished much closer on the scoreboard only for a number of questionable referring decisions.
First Half
Randalstown kicked off into the wind on this wet and breezy day. From the start Rainey Old Boys applied pressure with surging runs from their forwards and their inside and outside centres. The Randalstown boys found it difficult to retain possession as the opposition dominated at the breakdown stealing a number of Randalstown balls.
Rainey Old Boys organised attack functioned extremely well with their pack moving the ball forward within striking distance, then spreading it wide through the backs to break the gain line. Unfortunately, during this twenty minute period with the wind at their backs, Rainey Old Boys run in four unanswered tries. One of these tries did however come as a result of a refereeing decision on the Randalstown five meter line. The Randalstown boys were initially awarded a penalty, but due to descent the decision was harshly overturned and given to Rainey Old Boys who ran in an easy try.
Credit to Randasltown, they dusted themselves off and played much better for the remaining ten minutes of the first half. With Randalstown’s forwards now committing numbers to the breakdown Brandon McCallister, Danny Webb, Daniel Cullen and Dominic O’Connor carried ball to the opposition twenty two. This forward move was controlled by scrum half Oran Gilbert who then fed quick ball to the backs. Peter Cullen ran a straight line and offload to Eoin McDonald who wrapped around behind him and crashed over at pace for the score. eoin letters conversion attempt into the wind struck the post and went agonisingly wide. For the last few minutes of this half Rainey Old Boys did mount an attack, but with renewed belief the Randalstown boys held strong with great tackles in particular from Stefhan Gabbidon-Lyttle which allowed Dominic O’Connor his first opportunity of the game to steal ball.
Letterkenny 22:5 Randalstown
Second Half
In the second half it was a much more even contest with Randalstown putting pressure on the opposition to not alone hold them scoreless but scored a second try. Again a refereeing decision changed the course of play and the Randalstown boys were denied their third try.
Early in the second half Randalstown had good periods of possession, backs and forwards combed well in attack with a number of surging runs from Eoin McDonald. Broken play on the opposition twenty-two almost saw Mathew Luke score in the corner after a counter-attack from Oran Gilbert, Ruairi Griffen, Peter Cullen and Stefhan Gabbidon-Lyttle. A distinct improvement could be seen in the back lines ability to run the ball. A line-out, won by Brandon McAllister, saw another great drive from the forwards taking play up to the opposition five meter line. Daniel Cullen, Ross Swann, Andrew Stewart and Luke Kirkwood combined to make yards and protect the ball a meter short of the try line. It was now the turn of Dominic O’Connor to drive to the line clearly grounding the ball for all to see, but again the referee made a controversial call and disallowed the try claiming it had been held up.
Rainey Old Boys were not without their own attempts to score, but they found it difficult to break down the now organised and alert Randalstown defence. For the final try of the game Randalstown turned ball over in the middle of the park and Peter Cullen took on a broken Rainey defensive line to run in a try from the half way line. Fending off a number of players, Peter ran at pace in an arcing line across goal to score in the corner for a much deserved try for the team.
The game finished with Randalstown on top, and credit again must be given to the boys fighting spirit coming back from such a large margin and remaining composed when calls clearly went against them.
Notable performance of the day came from Eoin McDonald for a great all round performance.
Ross Swann, Eoin McDonald, Danny Webb, Brandon McAllister, Joel McCavana, Luke Kirkwood, Daniel Cullen, Dominic O’Connor, Oran Gilbert, Ruairi Griffen, Con McGee, Peter Cullan, Stefan Gabbidon-Lyttle, Matthew Luke, eoin letters, Andrew Stewart, Ricardo Correia da Conceicao, Cormac Devlin, Jack Stewart-Williams.
