NUIM Barnhall RFC 18 Rainey Old Boys 20
A bright and fast start to last Saturdays Ulster Bank All Ireland league was possibly the undoing of the young Parsonstown side. A convincing display of power by Gareth Murray, Ray Duff icy, Barry Dunne and Tom McKeown brushed the Visitors aside and after eight minutes and several phases of possession the ball found its way to Ryan Hopkins who crossed over for a try close to the corner flag. Simon Gillespie was unable to add the conversion but a simple five point was established. The ease of the score and the way the opposition got pushed aside immediately gave a false sense of superiority to the NUIM BARNHALL side. Instead of pressing home the advantage in the tight the Pack began to spread themselves wide almost waiting for an opportunity to score the next try. A bad mistake by the man of the match Jim McBride resulted in a scrum to the home side on the Rainey Old Boys 22 meter line. NUIM BARNHALL committed an error at the scrum and in the relieving kick Rainey gathered the ball and went on a telling run with loose forwards handling the ball well. Once the ball was flashed to McBride we cut open the defence and crossed over for an excellent try in the left hand corner. While the home side were stunned by the effort confident was still sky high that the forwards would prevail in the tight exchanges in this game. Just before the end of the first quarter of the game the Rainey pack again moved the ball wide and the two second row forwards Nail Rankin and Danny Dawson combined well in eating up the yards before offloading the ball top McBride who again cut open the defence with excellent running. A try close to the posts gave a simple opportunity to Gavan Martin to add the conversion which he duly did to establish a five points to twelve lead. The second score did spark a very positive reaction from Murray, Dunne and Marcus Doyle who continued with a pick and go style of play which had yielded the first score. Gareth Murray crossed over for a well worked try which Gillespie had little difficulty converting and along with a mid range penalty the Home side stood at 15 points to 12 with every expectation that several more try’s could be achieved in the second half. As with the game against Higfhfield two weeks ago NUIM BARNHALL camped on the Rainey Old boy’s line for almost the entire second half. A combination of knock on’s, poor kicking away of possession and wrong options being taken NUIM BARNHALL could not progress and widen the gap between the two sides. A break by Martin was well supported by the Rainey pack and with great class and speed the ball was moved to within a meter of the NUIM BARNHALL line. A loss of a score after camping on the Rainey door step could have started a slide but a crucial tackle by Gillespie prevented the unthinkable. A needless penalty was gifted to Rainey and Martin was well up for the conversion and at 15 points each a draw looked a distinct possibility. NUIM BARNHALL had failed to capitalise on the possession they enjoyed and has crossed over the line only to knock on the ball and prevent any improvement in the score line. However a missed penalty was quickly followed by a long range drop goal by Gillespie and despite the superiority of the pack and having 75% of the possession in the entire game the home side looked like they would escape with a victory as at 78 minutes of the game Gillespie’s drop goal made the score line 18 points to 15 in favour of the home side. Further fumbling in the forwards and a senseless kick down field was well collected by Peter Boyle the Rainey full back. His only option at that stage was to keep the ball alive and try to score a try. Again excellent handling at speed saw the ball flashed to McBride who was well stopped by Barry Dunne but not before he off loaded the ball to Archie Clarke. Clarke skipped and danced his way past two poor efforts at tackling the speedy winger and he crossed over for the third of Rainey’s try’s on the corner flag. Gavan missed the conversion and a four point winning haul for NUIM BARNHALL was turned into a sour one point loosing bonus. With injuries to four key players in the Pack the Rainey Old Boys had hoped to come away from Parsonstown with a losing bonus. The escape with a win was a cause of much merriment and banter from the Rainey Old Boys Supporters. This second loss at home when all of the advantages and the vast majority of the possession were with NUIM BARNHALL is a difficult pill to swallow. Much work will be needed to improve the strike rate of the team when so much possession is enjoyed. Much work will also be needed in defence if the season is to be spent looking at winning games rather than looking at the results table hoping other teams are losing.
