U18 Friendly 11th November 2017
Scorers: Molloy(2*Try), Clarke(1*Try), Diamond(1*Try), Friel(1*Try), Kearns(3*Conv)
Rainey OB U18s travelled to the Palace Grounds in Armagh for a friendly fixture last Saturday, coming away with a satisfying 31-0 victory. Although Armagh enjoyed a significant weight advantage in the scrums, they were never able to make it count, with the visitors driving them off their own ball on several occasions, while the quality of the Rainey defence ensured their line was only threatened on a couple of occasions.
With this being their first match in over a month, Rainey took a while to find their rhythm, with a few passes going astray and players getting their positioning wrong. Molloy and Clarke began causing havoc with a series of drives pushing Armagh back and eventually the pressure told when Clarke crashed over in the corner supported by Feathers.
Armagh came back strongly and dominated the game for a time, getting to within 5m of the Rainey line. The defence held however, and Rainey gradually drove them back until Clarke grabbed a turnover and set off down the pitch from his own 22’. Unfortunately the Armagh cover finally stopped him before he could cross the whitewash, but Rainey were now in full flow, and when Murray was tackled without the ball in front of the posts, they had the confidence to take the tap and send Diamond over in the corner for his debut try after returning from a longterm injury. Kearns converted.
Friel added a third converted try early in the second half with a fine solo effort, to take the score to 19-0, but the play of the match was to come a few minutes later. When Kearns took a quick 22’ drop-out, he released Young who went the length of the pitch and a few phases later an overlap was created, giving Molloy an easy run in. Kearns was again successful with the conversion. With their last play from a 5m scrum, the ball was fed to Molloy, who crashed over, enveloped by two defenders. This was a long overdue runout for the team, but they will be more than happy with the outcome.