The holders, Ballymena, retained the First Trust Ulster Senior Cup by beating a disappointing Rainey Old Boys 25-6 at Ravenhill last Wednesday evening.The Eaton Park team had enough experience in their ranks to put their indifferent AIL league form behind them and had the game in a vice-like grip before the final quarter.Injuries took their toll on Rainey who had lost Shiels and Mc Murray before introducing the rest of their replacements.They then lost scrum-half Simpson,arguably their best player on the night,and their challenge petered out.
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The rain clouds rolled in just in time to make a previously frostbound pitch playable and a good crowd turned out to see what promised to be an interesting decider.Full-back O’Connor gave the underdogs a fourth minute lead when Clarke made ground on the left and chipped ahead for his forwards to hit the breakdown and earn a penalty.Adapting better to the conditions,Ballymena started to flourish as the influence of Welsh scrum-half Scott Gibson became more evident,but Rainey were not found wanting in the tackling department.After sixteen minutes,however,Rainey No.8 Mc Gowan knocked on in the tackle from a pick up on the 22′ and from the reset scrum Ballymena patiently probed until a gap opened up for centre Budina to go over with full-back Small adding the points
Clarke did well again to earn Rainey another penalty,but O’Connor pulled his attempt wide of the posts.Using big forwards Caldwell and Mulholland as battering rams to soften up the Rainey defence,Ballymena posed all the questions until a spirited Rainey enjoyed their best spell of the game.A risky offload went to ground,however,and they did well to scramble back and cut out a scoring pass as flanker Harkness broke through with support.Finding lineout ball increasingly hard to come by and under pressure at times in the scrum,Rainey found themselves pinned in their own half,but remained only 7-3 in arrears until late in the half when the Ballymena pack drove into the 22′ using the pick and go for Ulster Ravens hooker John Burns to take a short pass from out-half Irwin on the burst and go through for a converted try.A brother of Rainey replacement flanker Tom,the Burns boys are both products of Foyle College.
Good play from prop Rutledge and Simpson earned Rainey a penalty thirty yards out two minutes after the interval.O’Connor converted to rekindle memories of their comebacks at Dungannon and Malone,but a dominant Ballymena pack was able to force a succession of little errors and Small kept the scoreboard ticking by punishing lapses in discipline.Trailing 20-6,there was to be no way back for Rainey whose kicking let them down badly in the second half.Trying to play catch-up rugby proved to be beyond them and prop Shawe sealed a fine victory for Ballymena with a try four minutes from the end.
The Old Boys will be more disappointed with their performance than the result of this game.They know they can play much better and will be working on their shortcomings over the festive period while hoping that the injury situation clears up before the resumption of the AIL on January 19.
TEAM :M.O’Connor,A/Campbell,D.mC Murray,M.Mc Clelland,A.Clarke,G,Martin,S.Simpson,N.Amos,S.Sufferin,N.O’Kane,T.Barker,M.Shiels,A.Harbinson,P.Mc Gowan,P.Heaney.
REPLACEMENTS : P.Boyle,S.Hawe,T,Burns,S.Rutledge,R.Lamberton.
RESULT – CRAWFORD CUP OMAGH 2 8 – 25 RAINEY O.B. 3
FIXTURES – Dec.22 1st XV v Banbridge Ulster League away
2nd XV v Banbridge 2 away
4th XV v Omagh 4 away
DEC.29 RAINEY O.B. V ARDS Ulster League home
