U14 Friendly 30th September 2023
Scorers: Loughran(2*Try,1*Conv), Douthart(1*Conv), Walshe(1*Try)
Rainey U14 travelled to Coleraine’s Sandel Lodge at the weekend for a friendly match prior to the commencement of their league matches next week.
Right from the start, the visitors signalled their intent. A ferocious tackle from centre Shea Loughran causing the receiver to knock on. From the resulting scrum Rainey attacked out wide with fullback Cillian McLarnon joined the line to provide extra width. Swinging it back across, scrum-half Daniel McIvor drew most of the Coleraine defence and when Rainey got quick ball they went right again. Loughran identified space out wide and backed himself to round the defence to run in a clear score. Out-half Thomas Douthart was successful with the conversion.
This promising start stung Coleraine into action. The worked their way downfield forcing numerous Rainey mistakes and penalties. It was therefore no surprise when they scored a converted try, and when they quickly added a second Rainey were in trouble.
Things got worse when they lost Douthart to injury, and had to rejig the backline, moving outside centre Harris Davison to out-half. Learning from their earlier mistakes, Rainey began to play to their strengths and with the forwards winning good ball for the backs, it was quickly sent out wide to Eoin Walshe at centre. Showing great balance, he jinked through the Coleraine defence to score a try and when Loughran was successful with the conversion the game was tied.
With Rainey receiving as the second half started, lock Louis O’Connor took the restart and carried well, as did his second-row partner Oliver Nelson. Rainey were well in control, with the front-row of Conleith Bradley, Fionn McOscar and Andrew McKeown providing a solid platform and the backrow men Oisin O’Loughlin, Matthew Cunningham and Caolan O’Neill harassing the opposition at every opportunity. Rainey continued to attack through numerous phases of play, but were guilty of just failing to make the last pass count which kept Coleraine with in touching distance and allowed them to work their way back into the game. As they attacked, a crunching tackle from O’Connor caused the Coleraine player to fumble close to Rainey’s 22’. Loughran gathered the ball, eluded the Coleraine defence and ran clear to score a try at the sticks. Unfortunately, the conversion was unsuccessful.
With no further scores, Rainey ran out 14-19 winners.
Team: 1 Conleith Bradley 2 Fionn McOscar 3 Andrew McKeown 4 Oliver Nelson 5 Louis O’Connor 6 Caolan O’Neill 7 Oisin O’Loughlin 8 Matthew Cunningham 9 Daniel McIvor 10 Thomas Douthart 11 Tiernan McKee 12 Shea Loughran 13 Harris Davison 14 Eoin Walshe 15 Cillian McLarnon
Subs: 16 Andrew Murray 17 Ciaran Short 18 Shea Cushenan