Ulster Carpets North U18 League 17th December 2016
Scorers: Molloy(1*Try), Layden(1*Try), Scullion(2*Try), O'Neill(3*Try), Smyth(1*try), McGlone(1*Try), Kearns(1*Try, 6*Conv)
IN great conditions for open rugby, Rainey Old Boys U18s continued their dominance of the Ulster Carpets North U18 league with a straightforward 62-0 win over Ballymoney U18s. For the second week in a row, they scored 10 tries as they completely dominated the proceedings.
Second row Molloy opened the scoring after 6 mins when, following good rucking from the forwards, the ball was moved out the backs and he had an easy run in. Following a scrum on the half-way, Winger Layden added a second after good work by Totten and O’Neill. Fullback Scullion added a third after Molloy and Clarke had made good ground down the middle of the park, and O’Neill made it four, crossing just left of the posts following a quick tap penalty from scrum-half Young and carries by Clarke and Kearns. Ballymoney then had their best spell of the match, spending the remainder of the first period in Rainey’s half, but good defence ensured they never troubled the Rainey line. With two of the four tries having been converted by Kearns, the first half finished with Rainey ahead by 24-0.
Playing into the sun and the breeze in the second half, Rainey were ready for Ballymoney to come at them with renewed vigour, but in fact the Magherafelt men were soon back to their scoring ways. When Clarke stole a lineout on the Ballymoney 10m line, O’Neill broke through to dive over out wide on the right for his second of the day. Back came Ballymoney, but Feathers stole the ball in a tackle and following a good carry from Molloy, prop forward Smyth drove over from 5m.
A kick and chase from Kearns gave Rainey a 5m scrum and quick ball allowed Scullion to cut through for Rainey’s seventh try. A few minutes later, Hooker McGlone added another from close range before O’Neill got his hat trick when he broke from his own half and evaded three tackles to touchdown between the posts. Rainey pressed again and Kearns was unlucky when he was unable to ground the ball under the posts, but from the resulting scrum, replacement scrum-half Murray was lifted and dumped in the tackle, but managed to get the ball to Kearns who dived over. With four of these tries converted by Kearns, Rainey ran out 62-0 winners.
Rainey’s next league match will be at home to Letterkenny in the New Year. The corresponding fixture earlier in the season was a tight affair, with Rainey finally coming from behind to secure the points on that occasion.