Virginia RFC under 15´s in Final after convincing win against Rainey Old Boys
Virginia RFC – 22
Rainey Old Boys – 5
Virginia U15’s departed from Virginia Club House at 7.30am on Saturday morning to make the long journey to Magherafelt to compete #in the Ulster semi-final of the U15 League competition. Their opponents were Rainey Old Boys who had also powered their way to the semi final and who Virginia knew were not to be taken for granted.
CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES
Conditions while cold were quite good and the game commenced with a sustained period of pressure from Virginia. Strong forward play set up nice ball for the Virginia backs who caused problems for Rainey and eventually team captain Niall Farrelly picked up a ball from the back of a 5 metre scrum and powered over for an early try under the posts which was duly converted by the new Ronan O’ Gara of Virginia – Ben Conaty.
Virginia continued to impress and Darren Brady went over for the second week in a row only to be denied by the TMO.
Virgina were now gaining in confidence and prop Ross Curran showed both strength and pace in his ball carrying.
A slick passing movement by Ben Conaty to Ross set up Niall Farrelly on the halfway line and he powered through for a touchdown under the posts for Virginia’s second try which was converted by Ben. A penalty inside the 22 converted by Ben Conaty brought Virginia to a lead of 17 – 0 at half time.
From the restart a great run and off load by Darren Brady sent Ben Conaty in for Virginia’s third try. Unfortunately the conversion dropped short. Brendan Argue was confident and assured at full back .Jason Mc Mahon gave a display of exemplary kicking gaining Virginia some breathing space and terriority on a number of occassions. Eoin Somerville made some brilliant tackles and was ably assisted by Jack Faherty and Daire Mc Enroe who were both shaking off the effects of the flu.
Rainey did go over for a try after some missed tackles by Virginia, but Virginia than battened down the hatches and held out for the final 15 minutes.After some excellent scrummaging by Virginia’s front row they managed to turn over some excellent scrums inside their own 22 to hold off Rainey once more. Jason Winterlich at scrum half was on top of his game as was Michael Nowak in the front row until injury resulted in his removal from the game. Second row Niall Yore and Míchael Faherty worked hard at the breakdown while on the flanks at number 7 Evan Doughty put in some huge hits throughout the game. Substitute Ian Goldrick laid down a marker for management with an excellent performance and with a strong bench still remaining including Peadar Doughty, Dale Smith, Karl Golden, Eric Shekleton, Sean Ward, Daniel Faulkner, Maliej Stolowski, Robert Mc Cabe and Remi Ivaskevicius, competition for places will be strong.
Virginia now look forward to their first Ulster U15 final in the clubs history, on the 10th of March with venue yet to be announced.
Back Row:
Daire Mc Enroe, Niall Farrelly, Niall Yore, Jack Faherty, Míchael Faherty, Ian Goldrick, Darren Brady, Evan Doughty, Brendan Argue, Jason Mc Mahon, Eoin Somerville, Remigijus Ivaskevicius
Front Row:
Michael Nowak, Andrew Geraghty, Robert Mc Cabe, Ben Conaty, Dylan Farrelly, Jason Winterlich, Tristran Lotscher, Peadar Doughty, Dale Smith, Eric Shekleton Missing from Photo: Maliej Stolowski, Ross Curran, Daniel Faulkner, Karl Golden, Sean Ward
