Towns'Cup 7th October 2023
Scorers: Henry(1*Try), Smyth(1*Try), Pollock(2*Conv, 1*Pen)
Rainey II entertained Lurgan in the Town’s cup at Hatrick Park, a fixture which last occurred 30 years ago in 1993. While Rainey ran out winners that day, the situation was drastically reversed last weekend as the Lurgan men ran out 17-47 winners.
Rainey had an excellent start, a kick to the corner and a great catch and maul setting up hooker Henry to crash over in the corner. Outhalf Pollock landed an excellent conversion. This kicked Lurgan into gear and they equalised soon after, their speedy winger outpacing everyone down the left touchline to round and score under the posts.
They added another soon after, but Rainey stuck to their task, intense pressure forcing a series of knock-ons as the visitors pressed their attack. Rainey reduced the deficit as Pollock added a penalty as the half ended.
Unfortunately, in the second half Lurgan showed why they are one of the favourites to win Championship 2 this season as they ran in a further 32 points and withstood some intense Rainey pressure on their goal line. Rainey finally got the points they deserved when Smyth scored in the dying moments and Pollock added the conversion.
TEAM: D.O’Connor, T.Henry, T.Hughes, M.Millar, C.Devlin, A.Currie, D.Devlin(c), J.Bell, M.Kelly, G.Pollock, A.Donaghy, R.Kearns, E.Canavan, A.Walker, A.MacDonald
SUBS: McPeake, P.Browne, C.Cmyth