2nd XV League 15th November 2022
Scorers: AJ Brown(1*Try), Kearns(1*Pen, 1*Conv)
Rainey II met Malone II in the league on Friday night under the lights at the Meadowbank Arena. Although the home side raced into an early lead, they ultimately were lacking the strength in-depth to stay the course, eventually going down to a 10-26 score line.
Malone started brightly, attacking at speed and testing the Rainey defence to it’s limits. Despite a couple of close calls, the Magherafelt side dealt well the threat, and, somewhat against the run of play opened the scoring after 15mins, when scrum-half McGinty took the opportunity to hoof the ball downfield behind the visitors’ defence. Following-up quickly, he was able to win the ball and feed winger AJ Brown in support, who outpaced the Malone defenders and scored to the right of the posts. Out-half Kearns was on target with a well-placed conversion.
Malone came back strongly, but again the Rainey defence held, the back row of B.Brown, Bell and B.Hall and locks M.Brown and Millar to the fore. Getting into their rhythm, they took play all the way to the Malone line, but despite a couple of good chances, their handling let them down and Malone cleared their lines.
Sensing an opportunity, Malone came again, their fast-paced attack stretching Rainey back and forth across the width of the pitch, before eventually their fullback forced his way over. The conversion was missed.
Rainey then had their best period of play, their driving attack taking play to the Malone 5m line. Time and again they attacked, putting the visitors under extreme pressure, but they just couldn’t cross the whitewash and the half ended with their noses just in front 7-5.
They started the second period as they’d ended the first, deep in enemy territory. However, when their attack once again looked like coming up short, they elected to have Kearns kick a penalty when the opportunity arose.
The Malone pack, who had been threatening all evening, at this point upped their game. Sensing they had the upper hand in the scrum, they forced a series of penalties, resulting in prop McPeake seeing yellow. Rainey were able to resist for a few more minutes, but with more scrum penalties ensuing, the referee awarded a penalty try to Malone.
Gamely, Rainey kept plugging away, without ever really getting close to scoring, and in the 65th minute Malone put the result beyond doubt, scoring a converted try after creating an overlap in the Rainey backline. They added another a few minutes later to gain the bonus point, and continue the Rainey II losing streak.