WORTH WAITING FOR
It has been a very frustrating season so far for Rainey Old Boys whose injury problems have been well documented,but last Saturday at Hatrick Park they upset the form-book to beat promotion contenders Greystones 28-22 in a cliffhanger.The quality of rugby was not that great at times,but the mistakes made by both sides added to the drama,with the issue in the melting pot right up to the final whistle.While they could be considered by some to be a little fortunate to hold out for a precious victory,the spirit of their forwards in the last half hour cannot be denied.Their pick and go game and controlled mauls kept them in the game when Greystones looked like taking the points.The back-row of Hawe,McCrea and Heaney was outstanding,with the latter claiming some invaluable lineout ball at crucial times.
This shock result co-incided with the debut of Kiwi scrum-half Peter Sciascia,who picked up a hand injury at his first training session with the club in late August.The 25 year old,from,Wellington,did not take long in showing that he will be an asset to the side.
Greystones missed a first minute penalty when the tackler failed to roll away.Shiels broke into the visitors’22’ from a lineout before losing possession,but the Rainey scrum pushed the Greystones eight off their own ball and were awarded a penalty which O’Connor kicked.Sciacscia then twice probed and Shiels had a go to earn a close range penalty.Greystones second-row Holmes was yellow carded for killing the ball.Rainey then conceded a silly penalty which Greystones missed and failed to put the Wicklow men under any pressure while they were a man short.Greystones tried a change of kicker,but missed a third kick and shortly afterewards had prop Clancy sin-binned for a deliberate knock- on,a transgression which O’Connor duly punished.A minute later O’Connor came onto a clearance to link with wing Devlin,who,when tackled,fed Paul on the loop and the captain had the wheels to outstrip the cover and slide over in the corner.O’Connor converted with a fine kick to leave Rainey 16-0 ahead.
Mc Crea was very unlucky to be yellow carded when the ball struck him as he was trying to get back from an offside position.Greystones kicked that penalty,but made little impact up front as Rainey managed to compete well.Things started to go wrong for Rainey in the last four minutes of the half.Greystones retained possession well through several phases to score a good try and just on half-time broke through some non-existent tackling on halfway to establish a great attacking position from which centre Malone scored.
Two minutes into the second-half Greystones equalised with a penalty when they broke out of defence and kicked ahead.Paul got back for Rainey,but tried to beat a man and was caught.Hawe then found himself stranded and was blown up for not releasing in front of his posts.When they conceded another silly penalty five minutes later to trail 16-19 it did not look good for Rainey,but with replacement hooker Colm Heaney making his presence felt,they regained the lead with a pushover try.A Greystones handling error helped them force a penalty and,opting for the scrum,they drove over with Mc Crea touching down.
On the hour mark the home crowd began to sense that a first win in the AIL was a possibility when the forwards edged their way patiently into the 22′.The attack lost momentum when out-half Martin was caught in two minds,but hooker Heaney took his short pass to burst through for a vital try at the posts.Greystones kicked a penalty immediately afterwards and looked extremely dangerous on the counter as Rainey failed to pin them in the corners.Their kicking game was not good enough to trouble Greystones’ back three who threw caution to the wind and posed all sorts of problems.Sciascia made a nice little break and popped it up to Mc Crea,but Greystones did well to get in a clearance when a kick ahead had them back-pedalling.With three minutes remaining Greystones won a lineout in the corner,but instead of trying to rumble over,they sought a gap in the centre and were penalised for not releasing.Another great take by Heaney in the lineout,a controlled forward surge and a kick to touch from the other Heaney took Rainey deep into opposition territory,but there was almost another twist in the tail.The last play of an engrossing encounter saw Greystones right-wing Carroll cut loose from near his own line before drifting infield towards his support.Had No.8 O’Toole been able to hold a pass on the Rainey 10′,he would have been clean through for what may well have been a converted try.
TEAM : M.O’Connor,A.Campbell,R.Paul.S.Derby,R.Devlin,G.Martin,P.Sciascia,N.Amos,S,Sufferin,N.O’Kane,P.Boyle,M.Shiels,P.Heaney.R.Mc Crea,S.Hawe.
REPLACEMENTS : C.Heaney ( Sufferin 45 ) R.Hall ( Amos 70 )
FIRST CONFERENCE POINTS FOR RAINEY
In Conference 3A,Rainey O.B.11 beat Lurgan 19-10 at Pollock Park where forwards Paul Hawkins and Stephen Beattie returned after lengthy absences.They played particularly well in the first-half.Centre Cassidy gave them the lead after 10 minutes,Mc Oscar converting.Hawkins and Cassidy caught the eye as their driving and offloading game kept them on the offensive .Lurgan kicked a penalty,but Cassidy picked up his second try after two others had bee ruled out.Late in the half full-back Mc Erlean crossed for a converted try as the pack continued to go well.Montgomery showed up well in the centre with some straight,hard running.
The second-half was a bit of a non-event as Rainey went off the boil.Hooker Donaghy had a try disallowed before Lurgan put together a good back movement to score under the posts.Rainey wing Andrews then had a try disallowed for a double movement as Rainey made sure of banking their first points in this league.
FIXTURES for Sat.,20 Nov.
1st XV v Instonians Ulster League 2-30 p.m.
2ndXV v Instonians 11
4th XV v U.U.C.11
All home games.
