Last Saturday The ” Devels” travelled to Hatrick Park to play Rainey OB 2nd XV in the Conference League and with a mid table finish assured in this league Quins sent a much changed side up to Rainey with the Senior Second League and Cup runs in mind.
Rainey in a buoyant mood from their defeat of City of Derry the previous week in the Towns Cup had a few changes but mainly down to positional and from the whistle showed their intent and in the first quarter earned two penalties in front of the “Devels” posts gifting them a 6 – 0 lead.
Quins were more dominant in the set piece putting pressure on the home side scrums and line outs but a number of injuries to Quins players left gaps. Open side flanker Adam (PK) McKee received a kick to the right cheek causing him to be removed from the field to have a nasty gash treated, this was followed by another kick, this time to the face of second row Jack Lavery causing him to leave the field of play.
This did not deter the Quins side and they attacked the Home line on a number of occasions but didn’t have the numbers to make it count.
Quins inside centre Connor Mackie made a number of good breaks in only his third rugby match at this level but he seemed to come under the attention of the Rainey defence who “double teamed” him a number of times and on one occasion lifting him and slamming him to the ground, a positional move to outside centre saw this attention on the player end.
Rainey controlled the game well with good kicking form their out half and blind side flanker who would have been their stand out player in the loose, and it was near to the end of the half when mis-communication in the visitors back line led to Rainey scoring a converted try. 13 -0
The second half saw Quins the more dominant side as they started to gel and with four players having their first game for the “Devels” trying to make their impression on the game the ball was moved well across the park.
As the visitor pack took control of the game prop Oran McIlmurray broke a number of tackles from the Rainey forwards as he powered his way towards the line, Charlie Campalani, playing his first game at full back cut a lovely line to take the pop pass from McIlmurray to score just to the left of the posts, converted by Mathew (Cabbage) Mullan. 13 – 7
As Quins picked up the tempo an off the ball incident involving one of the home players started a bit of “handbags” in the centre of the pitch but good referring soon settled this down.
Rainey came back again with a converted try and it was not long until a high tackle by Quins player Mackie saw him leave the pitch for 10 minutes and really the end of the visitors attack.
Although there were a few incidents in this game it was well played by both sides and certainly those players making their first appearance in the “Devels” performed well.
There is no game next week for this squad but the following week is the Quarter Final of the McCrea Cup with a home draw against Cooke 230pm ko
