Rainey O.B. 39 – 26 Instonians
Rainey O.B. 2 28 – 26 Instonians 2
Coleraine 3 24 – 61 Rainey O.B. 3
RAINEY CRUISE TO EASY VICTORY
The crowd at Hatrick Park had ten tries to entertain them as Rainey Old Boys beat Instonians 39-26 in the First Trust Ulster League.The game was as good as over as a contest by the end of the first quarter and they had the bonus point in the bag by half-time when they led 29-5.To their credit,Instonians stepped it up after the break to dominate for spells and cashed in on some slack Rainey play to pick up a losing bonus point in the last minute.
Rainey made several changes for this fixture,but they hit the ground running only to butcher three clear chances in the opening minutes.From a first minute scrum,they stormed into the visitors’ 22′,but,with a clear overlap,failed to use the long pass,allowing the cover to scramble across.Flanker Burns then lost the ball in contact,but with the scrum going well,they set up another great position only to lack precision at the key moment.The opener finally arrived after nine minutes when second-row Boyle took it on for out-half Martin to make a telling half break before sending full-back O’Connor through for a try which he converted.Four minutes later O’Connor crossed again when it looked as if another gilt-edged opportunity had been squandered.Tall second-row Mc Gowan,maing his first start for the club,was showing up well and launched a good breakout from deep.Left-wing Mc Clelland was halted in the corner,but the Rainey scrum again did the business for No.8 Shiels to dot down.O’Connor converted from the touchline and added a 50 yard penalty to make it 22-0.The Shaw’s Bridge side battled to get back into the game and picked up a deserved try on the Half hour,but bang on half-time Simpson and Campbell put Rainey on the front foot for Simson to place co-centre Mc Murray for a lovely try with a sublime little inside pass.
Two minutes after the interval,O’Connor was held just short in the right corner,but play quickly switched left for Simpson to float a super long pass out to Mc Clelland who finished off try number five in the corner.Shiels and Simpson took them into another great position,but they turned ball over to allow Inst to break out and a missed tackle on halfway let them go on to score at the posts.As the game turned niggly for a spell,O’Kane lit up the afternoon with a storming run,but they failed to make the most of another great pass from Simpson.Inst had the better of things as gaps began to appear in midfield and Mc Murray denied them with a try saving tackle.A wayward pass from Martin on halfway allowed Inst to hack forward and regain possession to score at the posts,but Rainey created munbers down their right side for O’Connor to complete his hat-trick.In the final minute,some ineffective tackling in midfield helped Instonians to sail through for their fourth try of th afternoon.
TEAM : M.O’Connor,A.Campbell,D.Mc Murray,S.Simpson,M.Mc Clelland,G.Martin,A.Mc Cluggage,S.Mc Dowell,S,Sufferin,N.O’Kane,P.Boyle,P.Mc Gowan,A.Dysart,M.Shiels,T.Burns.
replacements : A.Donaghy ( Mc Cluggage 60 ) P.Stewart ( Shiels 65 )
RAINEY O.B. 2 28-26 INSTONIANS 2
Just when it looked as if they had blown awinning lead,centre Devlin calmly kicked a late penalty to give Rainey O.B. 2 a 28-26 home win over Instonians 2.Even that was not the end of the drama,for,in injury time,Instonians almost snatched a sensational winner. Rainey’s dominance in the scrum should have seen them home ith plenty to spare,but they played too much rugby in their own half of the field rather than take the safer option and were made to pay.
Rainey led 13-8 at half-time with tries from Andrews and Mc Ivor.The visitors narrowed the gap before some good forward play created the chance for Andrews to stretch their advantage.When Inst hacked through to force a five metre scrum the Rainey eight rose to the occasion again to steal possession.But,instead of clearing their lines,they tried to work their way out,coughed up possession and paid the penalty.Rainey’s key player,No.8 Stewart,led a drive from the tail of a lineout to reopen a gap between the sides,but some very poor kicking played into Instonians’ hands and a red card for Rainey prop Hill twelve minutes from time did not help their cause.A penalty and a try gave the Belfast men the lead with time almost up,but there was to be a twist in the tail.
COLERAINE 3 24 – 61 RAINEY O.B. 3
Rainey O.B. 3 got back on the right track with a 61-24 victory over Coleraine 3 at Sandel Lodge.They led 31-17 at the break,but pulled away in the last quarter as the home side wilted.Nine tries came their way,with the backs in fine form.Coleraine just could not cope with the Irvine-Mc Bride combination which accounted for five of them,two for the former and three for the latter.Centre Donnelly claimd two,with hooker Kidd and scrum-half Walker grabbing one apiece.Walker added eight conversions.
FIXTURES – 20 Oct.
1st XV v DUNGANNON CUP away 2.30 p.m.
2nd XV v HARLEQUINS 2 home
4th XV v CLOGHER VALLEY 3 home
