Ulster Carpets U18 League North 18th November
Scorers: McCann(3*Try), Diamond(1*Try), Friel(2*Try), Clarke(1*Try), McGlone(1*Try), Molloy(1*Try), Jeffers(1*Try), McErlain(1*Try), Kearns(1*Try, 8*Conv)
Rainey U18s kept intact their Ulster Carpets U18 League North record when then had an easy victory over Limavady last Saturday. Unfortunately, Limavady were unable to field a complete team, which resulted in a succession of Rainey players swapping sides in an attempt to make a contest of the match. In this at least, they failed, as Rainey ran out 76 - 3 winners.
Limavady opened the scoringwith a fine 30m penalty, but it was to be the only time they troubled the scoreboard. Fullback McCann opened their account with a fine solo try. Fielding a clearance kick on his own 10m line, he flew down the left wing, evading the attention of six would-be tacklers, to score in the corner. He added his second when left-winger Jeffers claimed a clearance kick which failed to find touch. Spotting space out right, he attacked diagonally infield towards the posts, before passing deftlty to McCann who was first in a four man overlap. Kearns converted, the first of eight successful kicks on the day.
When Flanker Clarke won a penalty for not releasing on halfway, he tapped quickly and made it to the Limavady 10m line before offloading to Molloy, who took it up to the 22'. The ball was recycled quickly and out-half Friel released Jeffers who scored in the corner. From a similar ruck a few minutes later, a variation on the same play saw centre Feathers run a dummy line which bamboozled the defence, while the ball went wide to the oncoming McCann who completed his hat-trick in the corner.
From the restart, the ball was fielded by Molloy and fed to Kearns who made a searing break down the left wing. He drew his man and passed to Friel, who offloaded for the supporting winger Diamond to go over to the left of the posts. Rainey now playing exhibition rugby. Diamond made a great break down the left-wing, and after carries by Clarke and McGlone, Friel split the defence and floated a lovely long pass to Kearns who cantered over out right.
Despite the one-way traffic, Limavady, to their credit, stuck to their task, but they had no answer to the Rainey onslaught. A line-out won by Reid on the Limavady 22' saw the ball fed to Clarke, who broke though to score under the posts, and from a similar lineout, the forwards set up a maul which went all the way to the line before McGlone got the try.
The second half continued much like the first. A 10m scrum saw the ball fed left for Friel to break through a tackle and dive over for a well-deserved try. Limavady were unlucky when the referee missed Clarke being fractionally offside from a box kick by scrum-half Murray, but he made the most of his opportunity, pressurising the fullback into spilling the ball. When Young hacked on, Friel got there first to dribble the ball over the line and grab his second score of the day.
A pickup from a 5m scrum in front of the posts saw No8 Molloy power his way over, Diamond should have scored but was bundled into touch as he crossed the line and McErlain crashed over from 5m following good ruck ball from the forwards, before the referee brought the match to an early conclusion.