SLIGO 19 – 22 RAINEY
AIL 2B Saturday 8th February 2025
Scorers: D.McMurray(1*Try), McLean(1*Try, 1*Pen, 2*Conv), O’Hagan(1*Try)
Rainey made it 4 AIL wins on the trot when they defeated Sligo at Hamilton Park 19-22, a last-gasp penalty from out-half McLean sealing the deal. The result maintains their hold on fourth place in AIL 2B, keeping them in the hunt for the promotion play-offs.
In breezy conditions, Rainey were quickly out of the blocks, with a 50m interception from fullback McCartney almost paying early dividends. A hack through by winger McLaughlin came even closer, foiled only when he was penalised for not allowing a defender to get up with the ball. Another scything run by centre Hardy took play deep into the 22’ with only great goal line defence by the home side denying Rainey the score.
A McLean penalty to the 5m gave them another shot, and this time there was no mistake. The forwards rumbled close, as Rainey worked the ball towards the posts. Scrum-half Davies darted for the line and was held up just short, but a few rucks later he was on-hand to feed McLean who sent a lovely weighted pass over the heads of his backline directly to winger D.McMurray to go over in the corner. A brilliant touchline conversion from McLean added the extras.
After a sustained period of pressure by Sligo, Rainey were soon back on the the attack. An attempted box-kick from Sligo was brilliantly charged down by flanker Lee, and when he gathered it safely in the 22’ and made a further 10m, his offload to McLean gave Rainey their second try. McLean’s conversion was good, as Rainey stretched their lead to 14, with 20 mins gone.
Any thoughts of an easy victory being entertained by the Rainey contingent were soon dispelled, as Sligo were soon on the scoreboard. A series of strong drives close to the Rainey line eventually saw their prop O’Donnell drive over for a converted try.
Rainey added their third try from a lineout on the right wing, a great catch from Lee setting the platform. A series of drives ended with prop O’Hagan powering over from short range, but unfortunately McLean’s kick sailed wide of the uprights.
The second half started with a long period of Rainey pressure, but they were unable to convert it to points on the board. Sligo narrowed the deficit with virtually their first foray of the half into the visitors’ territory, a short-range dive giving the home side a converted try. With their tails up, Sligo continued to pile on the pressure and Rainey had to withstand two all-out assaults on their line, at one stage successfully defending 22 phases. They seemed to have done enough as the clock ticked down, but from an innocuous looking attack, Sligo suddenly worked a 3-on-1 overlap on the blindside to score in the corner, and tie the game at 19-all.
Rainey won a penalty from the restart, and up stepped McLean to calmly slot it over before the last few minutes ran out.
The next AIL match is a home fixture against Malahide on Sat 15th Feb, KO 2:30pm.
Team: A.Nevin, D.O’Neill (Capt), T.O’Hagan, A.Montgomery, T.Hutchinson, M.McCusker, M.Lee, J.MCMurray, R.Davies, S.McLean, D.McMurray, J.Hardy, K.Thornton, R.McLaughlin, J.McCartney.
Replacements: M.Nevin, A.McSwiggan, D.Devlin, L.Montgomery, A.Donaghy
