Cookstown Crush Rainey
Cookstown rounded off their regular league season with a comprehensive victory over their rivals Rainey IVs. Cookstown scored 11 tries in total but it wasn’t all one way traffic as Rainey themselves managed 3 tries against a notoriously tough Cookstown defence.
Cookstown started like a steam train and Ciaran McKenna set them on their way with a try after he charged down an attempted clearance. Daniel McElroy then added a second and this was quickly followed by a third from Kyle Campton against his former club after some quick thinking. Despite losing their inspirational captain and leader Liam Currie to injury, Cookstown continued to run away with the game as further tries from Ciaran McKenna and Jarlath Quinn opened up a 35-0 lead. Rainey responded in determined fashion however as they dominated the final 10 minutes of the first half. They scored a try following repeatedly poor discipline from the Cookstown team and added a further try on the stroke of half time to reduce the deficit to 35-12.
Following strong words at half time, Cookstown re-established their dominance and Marty Boone got the first score of the half following a strong run. This was quickly followed with tries from McElroy and Quinn who both got their second of the contest. Rainey did respond with their 3rd try of the afternoon but thereafter Cookstown ran tries in at will. The returning Kevin Nugent showed no ill effects of his recent vacation with a well worked try. Ciaran McKenna completed his hat trick displaying great pace to score from half way and Ciaran Currie concluded the try scoring with a good finish from 3 yards out for a final score of Rainey 17 Cookstown 77.
This now paves the way for a crunch semi-final tie against old foes Malone for a place in the Ravenhill Cup final. This is scheduled to take place on 2nd May at the Mid Ulster Sports Arena. We would encourage all fans of rugby in the Mid Ulster area to come out and support Cookstown as this is sure to be a classic encounter between two of the top sides in Minor League rugby.
The players would like to thank Brown Sugar, Cookstown for their post-game hospitality and our resident photographer Daron Patterson for the pictures.
Director of Rugby Liam Currie commented after the game, “I asked the boys to put in a performance for their last league game and they did. It was good to get everyone in the squad a bit of game time ahead of the Malone game as we will be missing quite a few regulars due to one of the lads getting married in Scotland so the squad depth will be fully tested then.”
