Ulster Carpets Cup 1st April 2017
Scorers: Young(1*Try), Kearns(2*Try, 4*Conv), O'Neill(1*Try), Clarke(1*Try), Hall(1*Try), Smyth(2*Try), Totten(1*Try)
Photos

Rainey Old Boys U18s opened their Ulster Carpets Cup campaign last Saturday with a comfortable 53-5 win against Ballymoney.  The torrential rain earlier in the morning had thankfully cleared by kick-off, allowing some great flowing rugby to be played by both teams.

Kicking off into the breeze, Rainey were guilty of some early mistakes as their nerves seemed to get the better of them, but they quickly settled.  A great charge by second row McCann into the visitors’ 22m tied in the Ballymoney forwards and when out-half O’Neill released Smyth, he cleverly drew the tackle and released winger Young to score in the corner.  The conversion by Kearns was good. 

They added a second straight from the restart, when following good work by McCann, Clarke and O’Neill, centre Kearns slipped through a tackle on the half-way and ran in a converted score under the posts.  A third nearly followed when a chip through from Centre Feathers was carried over the line by the Ballymoney centre, but the resultant scrum cam to nothing.  Rainey were not to be denied however.  As the first quarter ended, they won a scrum about 30m out, the ball was flashed to Kearns who took the tackle and popped it to the supporting O’Neill, who forced his way through three tackles to score in the corner.

An inch-perfect kick from Kearns from half-way was chased down by winger Totten, who recovered it 5m out.  Flanker Clarke was first up in support and duly picked and drove over for Rainey’s fourth, with Kearns again adding the extras.

Although Ballymoney were defending manfully, they were unable to withstand the continuing Rainey onslaught.  When prop Smyth caught a loose ball at the tail of a lineout, he steamrollered down the park, the ball was recycled to McCann who made more yardage, before slipping it to flanker Doherty who offloaded for scrum-half Hall to dive over between the posts.  Kearns’ conversion was good once more.

As the half ended, Ballymoney managed to put together a few good phases of play, but from another loose ball at a lineout, Smyth once again caught and charged over in the corner to allow Rainey to turn around 38 points ahead.

After the re-start, a lineout on Rainey’s 22m led to a great breakout.  Hooker McGlone tidied and drove 10m through the middle of the line.  The ball was recycled to Clarke, who set a blistering pace down the middle of the park before giving a sweet backhand offload to the on-rushing Lock McCullough.  He passed to No8 Lawrence, who careened into the Ballymoney 22m.  The ball was quickly recycled to Smyth who exploded through the defence to within 5m before being hauled down, just short of what would have been a spectacular try.  Following the resultant scrum, Ballymoney kicked downfield to clear their lines.  The ball was fielded by O’Neill and carried into the 22m before being fed to Kearns who cut inside for Rainey’s seventh.

With Rainey ringing the changes, Ballymoney, who gamely refused to quit, had their best spell of the game.  They forced a series of scrums and lineouts close to the Rainey line, but as the defence held, they came away with nothing, and play returned to their half.  From a scrum, however, their lively scrum-half broke down the right wing and gave a lovely looping pass to the supporting winger who duly dived over for Ballymoney’s only points.

Back came Rainey.  From his own 10m, O’Neill spotted no-one at home and sent a huge kick down the right wing.  Flying winger Totten was first there and he duly gathered and dove over.  Their final score came from another turnover, as the forwards went through ten phases of play before Hall fed Smyth who drove over in the corner.

Although a comprehensive victory, the team know the coming rounds will provide much stiffer opposition.