Provincial North 24th September 2022
Rainey III entertained local rivals Ballymena III at Hatrick Park on Saturday in round 2 of the Provincial North league. In what proved to be an entertaining game, both sides showed plenty of skill and flair, but were often let down by poor decision making and a lack of concentration. That the match ended honours even at 22-22 was probably a fair result on the day.
Kicking off with a light breeze to their backs, Rainey immediately put themselves under pressure as some poor tackling allowed Ballymena to return play to halfway. Settling to their task, some strong drives up the middle by Centre Coleman and Prop Gordon allowed Out-half Regan to launch a superb kick to touch in the Ballymena ’22. A series of lineouts and mauls came to nothing and Ballymena ably cleared their lines. A great string of attacks by the Braidmen then took play right to the Rainey line, but somehow the home side survived.
Eventually, however, the visitors’ persistence paid off. They stretched Rainey across the park with a few phases, and then swung the ball wide to allow the left-winger to burst a tackle on the ’22 and cross in the corner. The conversion was missed.
On the 30-minute mark, Rainey worked themselves back into their opponents’ corner. The lineout was overthrown, but recovered, and first flanker Harkness and then scrum-half Smyth were stopped short. Coleman was on hand to do scrum-half duties, feeding Gordon, who forced his way over the line for Rainey’s opener. A stupendous touchline conversion from Regan gave Rainey the lead.
He almost added another 3-pointer a few minutes later, after good driving by the open-side Hall allowed some nifty handling by the backs to release Tuff. He held off several tacklers to make about 30m before being hauled down, but the referee penalised Ballymena for diving into the ruck. As the half drew to a close, Rainey had another kick to the corner, but again the Ballymena defence denied them
Turning around into a stiffening breeze, there were concerns Rainey’s 2-point lead would be insufficient, and these only worsened when the Ballymena hooker galloped over after 5 mins. A fantastic conversion extended their lead, and Rainey looked to be in deep trouble. A penalty from Regan narrowed the gap, and following the restart, he showed his pace to carve open the Ballymena defence and sprint downfield. Felled by the fullback, he slipped the ball to Harkness in support, and was ready to take the ball once more and go over in the corner from the ensuing ruck for a brilliant score. A conversion would have been the icing on the cake, but into the wind, it was not to be.
Sloppy handling at the restart immediately put Rainey in trouble, and soon they were defending desperately on their own line. The Ballymena winger crossed in the right corner, but was pulled back for a forward pass. It was only delaying the inevitable however, and a few minutes later, the visitors scored in the opposite corner. When they added another long-range penalty, Rainey were looking at a 15-22 deficit with only the final quarter to play.
Their tails up, Ballymena launched a furious attack, but it was snuffed out when No8 Steele won a penalty for holding-on. Tapping quickly, Hall sprinted though the defence and down the pitch. With only the fullback to beat, he opted to chip, but Ballymena recovered the ball and now Rainey were defending frantically once more.
Weathering the storm, a series of penalties took Rainey into the opposition ’22, where a maul made good ground, before Smyth fed his left wing who scythed through to score under the posts. Regan levelled the scores with the conversion.
With less than 10min to go, and both sides going for the win, things became a little fractious. A last-ditch Ballymena attack was once more repelled when Regan launched a clearance kick over half the length of the pitch, and an audacious cross-field kick failed to come off. Eventually, the referee called time and the points were shared.