VIRGINIA RFC Virginia RFC U16 Win away to Rainey OB
Virginia RFC U16 made the long journey to Magherafelt, county Derry to take on Rainey Old Boys RFC in the U16 Section 1 league.
Conditions were very difficult for both teams with a fierce wind blowing across the pitch, bringing the occasional shower of snow, sleet or hail.
Rainey opted to play with the wind in the first half and really used it to their advantage. Virginia were constantly pinned in their 22 and were finding hard to clear their line.
However the defense stood firm for the first 15 minutes and it’s only after sustained pressure on their line that Virginia conceded the first try on the game. 5-0 as the conversion was missed.
Virginia conceded a similar try before the break, the conversion was disallowed with the help of the TMO and the score remained at 10-0 at half-time.
Now with the wind in their back Virginia started the half with a lot more impetus and it wasn’t long before the put some points on the score board.
Good team play forced the host on the back foot, Virginia displayed excellent ball retention skills and quick ball at the back of the rucks allow them to move deep in Rainey’s half of the pitch. The ball was moved wide for winger Mantas “the pocket rocket” Ivaskevicius to cross the line. The conversion was missed and Virginia narrowed the score to 10-5.
Straight from the kick-off Virginia score one of the best try of the season so far. The ball was gathered by Dylan Tighe who spread it wide to the left. The ball came back to the right hand-side of the pitch. The forward ran hard at Rainey’s defense sucking in defenders. With a depleted Rainey defense line, Virginia seized the moment and went on the attack despite still being in their own 22. Fly-half Adrian Rogers decided to go wide where he found prop Michael Gordon, Gordon fixed his defender to feed Number 8 Oisin Kiernan, Kiernan dummy the pass to eliminated his defender and found Ronan Patterson on the inside. A strong run from Patterson made a lot of ground and Virginia were now near Rainey’s 22.
Patterson was caught by a good covering tackle but managed to off-load the ball to Mantas Ivaskevicius , Rainey defense were scrambling and Ivaskevicius was also caught but off-loaded to scrum-half Nathan McQuade. McQuade displayed his characteristic determination and 2 defenders could not stop him to conclude a great move and cross the line! Ronan Patterson kicked the difficult conversion to bring the score to 12-10.
Virginia were caught sleeping few minutes later and poor tackling allowed Rainey near Virginia line. Once again Virginia could not deal with Rainey strong runners. Rainey scored their third try of the day with another strike from short distance. No conversion and the score remained at 15-12.
But Virginia displayed great resilience. They engineer their way up the pitch once more and from a lineout on the right side of the pitch the forwards took the ball on. Few rucks followed the ball was sent to centre Patterson coming at pace to cross over. No conversion 17-15.
For the few remaining minutes of the game Virginia were on top and could have added a try on the gong only for Patterson to knock-on when grounding the ball.
A great game played by both teams in very difficult conditions.
Next week Virginia U16 will host Banbridge in the league.
