Rainey ES good early form season continues

Rainey ES 38

ON a beautiful Saturday morning Rainey travelled to the Maiden City to face Foyle.

The P.Keenan Road Surfacing-sponsored mid-Ulster team started brightly going immediately on the attack.

They had a few opportunities to open the scoring but stout home defence kept them out. Sam Hawe almost worked himself into a scoring position but was held up over the line.

For the opening 20 minutes Rainey did most of the attacking but were frustrated by Foyle who defended very well.

Foyle then began to come more into the game and tried to get the ball wide on a few occasions. 

With 10 minutes of the half remaining a fine line-out take by Mark Kavanagh put Rainey in a fine attacking position.

From a quickly taken penalty Jonathan Lees powered over the line to get the visitors first try. The conversion was missed, Rainey with a 5-0 lead.

Within minutes Rainey had their second try. Eunan Shaw jumped highest to steal a Foyle lineout throw and drove over the line to score. Arran Murphy kicked the coversion to give Rainey a 12-0 halftime lead. 

Rainey started the second half in a confident mood and soon added to the score. Again from a line-out the ball was moved by the backs. Jonathan Kyle made a strong burst in midfield. This was carried on by Lees, who put a fine inside pass to scrum half Oisin Qiunn and he scored under the posts. Murphy added the conversion to make the score 19-0.

Rainey now attacked at every opportunity and full back Matthew Stewart was making clever breaks from the back. The next try was probably the pick of the bunch.

The backs again opened the Foyle midfield. Number 8 Michael Dawson continued the move and his pass found outhalf Kieran Lynch who jinked his way over the line. Murphy was successful with the kick to extend the score to 26-0.

Winger Odhran McCloy was unfortunate not to get a score when a last ditch tap tackle stopped him with the line at his mercy. The forward exchanges were now being dominated by Rainey. Prop Michael Nevin was making a lot of ground driving around the fringes.

Try number five then came, with Tim Maxwell making a clever run. He beat a couple of Foyle defenders and then fed Quinn who ran in for his second try. Murphy added the points for 33-0.

With time running out, Matthew Stewart was replaced by Gavin Pollock at fullback. Foyle to their credit went on the attack and almost got a score. They drove hard at the Rainey line but the defence held them out. They then went wide but an excellent tackle by Rigan Sanderson on the wing prevented a certain score.

Rainey also had the final say. Centres Murphy and John Stewart combined beautifully to set up a great attacking position. From the attacking scrum Captain Michael Dawson drove through a number of home defenders to score. The conversion was missed.

The referee then blew his whistle to finish the game with Rainey winning 38-0. This has been a fantastic start to the season for the Rainey squad. They remain unbeaten after four games and have totalled 20 tries in these games.

The 2nd XV also remain unbeaten after defeating Foyle 17-3. Tries by Mark Allingham, Rory Nicholl and Diarmuid Devlin; and a Gavin Pollock conversion completed the scoring. 

The John Lynn Plumbing and Heating-sponsored Medallion won their second game on the trot with a comprhensive 37-5 win. 

The try scorers were Anton Lupari with two, James McGurk, Simon Andrews and Timothy Kyle. Matthew Mulholland converted all five tries.

The U14s unfortunately lost 30-17. In a much improved performance Todd Smyth, Matthew Porter and Mark Mulholland got the tries. 

The U13s got back to winning ways with an excellent 55-24 win. The try scorers were Martin Cudden with three, Jay Sayer, Stephen Greer, Gregory Conway, Cole Chambers, Martin McNulty, Matthew McGurk. Matthew Smyth kicked five conversions.

Saturday’s fixtures are against Portadown College and Clounagh JHS. 

The 1st XV, 2nd XV, 3rd XV and Medallion go to Portadown College for the Vincent Doyle Memorial Cup. The U14s and U13s are at home with a 10.15am kick-off, support welcome.