AIL Division 2B 5th November 2022
Scorers: Faiva(1*Try, 3*Conv), M.McCusker(1*Try), Smyth(1*Try), O'Neill(1*Try)
In glorious, hazy sunshine last Saturday, Rainey had to come from behind to eventually run out 26 – 15 winners against a lively Galwegians outfit. This win takes them into 4th position in AIL2B, in a chasing pack with fellow Ulster clubs Dungannon and Belfast Harlequins.
The opening phases were fairly even, but Galwegians’ exuberance and willingness to run everything soon saw them edge ahead with a penalty after 12mins, when Rainey were penalised for entering a ruck from the side. A great 50:22 from the Galwegians out-half a few minutes later pushed Rainey back, and when the visitors won a penalty 10m out, a simple tap and loop move exposed Rainey’s defence for the Galwegians flanker to score. The extras took the Galway men into a 10-0 lead.
Rainey needed to something special to get the home supporters going, and it was duly delivered by out-half Faiva. Galwegians snaffled a turnover at a ruck in mid-field, but the ball bounced loose. Faiva darted on to it, dribbled it forward, before collecting it, rounding the fullback and scampering in to score to the right of the posts. He duly added the extras to bring Rainey back into the game.
With Rainey’s superior pack controlling the set piece by this stage, it came as no surprise when, after winning a lineout on the Galwegians’ ’22, they were able to clinically march a maul all the way to the score line for No8 Smyth to get the second try. Faiva was on target once more. Galwegians pressed hard for a score as the clock inched towards half-time, but Rainey were able to weather the storm.
The pack were soon on the scoresheet again. A series of powerful drives from McSwiggan, M.McCusker and Smyth gave Rainey great field position, but a silly knock-on cost them possession. By way of recompense, they duly destroyed the Galwegians scrum, kicked the penalty to the corner and the resulting maul was unstoppable, M.McCusker getting the touchdown. Faiva’s conversion gave Rainey a 21-10 lead.
Chasing their 4th try, Rainey repeatedly built good scoring chances, but the silly mistakes that had plagued them all day kept occurring. An over-zealous clear-out by R.McCusker saw Rainey penalised on half-way, with McCusker lucky the leave the field injured and not as a result of a yellow card. Kicking for the corner, the Galwegian No10 found a superb touch 10m out. Winning the lineout, Galwegians spun the ball the width of the pitch for their fullback to go in at the corner for a ridiculously easy try off 1st phase. The conversion was well wide.
Still Rainey were their own worst enemies. The restart went straight to touch, but Galwegians were only able to gain 10m and concede the lineout. Another storming run from Smyth took play to the Galwegians ’22, but Rainey were pushed back once more. Scrum-half Donaghy repeated the charge, but again poor handling let Rainey down.
Despite this, their dominance of the set-piece meant Galwegians were living on scraps. As they tried to break from their ’22 for the umpteenth time, Smyth snatched a loose ball and fed Hastings on the left wing. He slipped a lovely little reverse pass to the supporting Montgomery and a few phases later, it took a full four defenders to hold lock J.McCusker up over the line.
Kicking long on the restart, the ball reached Rainey fullback M.ONeill on half-way. He chipped for the in-goal area from the 10m, and when the ball bobbled about in-goal, he was up quickly to tackle the Galwegian winger in possession. Attempting to avoid a grounding, the winger made a mess of the pass to his support and O’Neill pounced for Rainey’s bonus-point try.
Galwegians came back again, winning a series of scrums and penalties, but Rainey’s defence held and they finished out the game deep in their opponent’s half.
Next week, Rainey head south for an encounter with early league leaders, Greystones. Unbeaten in the league so far, the Wicklow team will be a stiff test for the Magherafelt men.