Last Saturday saw over 200 Rainey OB players put on the red and black to represent the club. Just as Ireland were overcoming Australia, the Mini section hosted a regional festival at Hatrick Park with visiting teams from Lurgan and Randalstown, with success in all age groups from P4 – P7.
It was then the turn of the Youth section to take to the field against Ballymoney and again all 3 teams were successful, with the U13s winning 29 – 15, the U15s winning 32 – 5 and the U17s winning 13 – 5.
CLICK HERE FOR LOTS OF U17 XV PICTURES
In the afternoon the U19s beat a strong Ballymena team 17 – 7 in their first game of the new season and the 3rd XV were victorious over near rivals Ballymoney 18 – 8 in the league.
CLICK FOR U15s Pictures
Also last Saturday, the First and Second XV traveled to Belfast to take on Ulster Senior League leaders Harlequins, coached by ex-Ulster player Adam Larkin. Harlequins have assembled a very strong squad which includes several Ulster Academy and Development squad players. Rainey were always going to be up against it, but both teams battled hard and Coaches Campbell and Eastwood will be able to take positives from both games.
CLICK HERE FOR U13s PICTURES
RAINEY III 18 – 8 BALLYMONEY III
League 17th September 2011
Scorers: Patterson(1*Try), O’Neill(1*Try), Walker(2*Pen), Martin(1*Conv)
Rainey III XV played their first league game of the season at home to an experienced Ballymoney III XV, emerging with a well-deserved 18 – 8 victory.
The Rainey pack dominated proceedings in the first half with Francis Loane and Declan McCann standing out. A good break on halfway from evergreen Bob Paul offloading to Ciaran O’Neill brought play up to the B’money 22, from where a pass out wide to Ian Patterson enabled him to stride into the corner for the first try of the game.
Gavin Walker followed this up with a well taken penalty for an offside infringement bringing the score to 8-0. John Beattie was unlucky to have a try disallowed just before half time, due to the referee obstructing a Ballymoney player attempting to make a last ditch tackle.
The second half kicked off with the Rainey backs engineering a well taken try for Ciaran O’Neill, with John Beattie adding the conversion. Ballymoney hit back shortly after with a penalty, and the last 10 minutes saw Rainey under pressure near their line, with Andrew Davis and Caolan Moran putting in some big hits.
However Ballymoney managed, with 5 minutes to go, to score a try of their own. The game finished with another Walker penalty, bringing the final score to 18-8. On the whole a good performance and a few selection headaches for the coaching staff.
Team: R.Patterson, F.Loane, D.McCann; I.Patterson, T.McCloskey; A.Davis, C.McOscar, C.Patterson; C.Magee, J.Beattie; R.Paul, C.O’Neill, A.Sterling, G.Walker, C.Moran.
