Medallion boys power into fourth round

Editorial Department • Published 26 Jan 2012 13:00 0 Comments

Portora Medallion 14; Rainey Endowed 5;

Portora Medallion made it through to the fourth round of the Northern Bank Medallion Shield with a deserving 14-5 win over Rainey Endowed following an exciting game of rugby at Castle Lane on Saturday.

Straight from the kick-off Portora, with the wind on their backs, started strongly forcing Rainey to play in their own 22. Rainey struggled to maintain possession from a scrum resulting in a turnover for Portora.

After quick ruck ball prop Jamie McKane took a strong ball carry, breaking through a number of tackles from 20 metres out to touchdown for a try. Centre and kicker Phillip Simpson added the conversion to make it 7-0 to Portora inside the first five minutes.

Gathering the restart Portora went straight back into the Rainey half with a smart grubber kick from out-half Alistair Crawford. After sustained pressure, Simpson crossed the whitewash for another try, however the referee deemed it to be held up.

A few silly mistakes and unnecessary penalties by the home side allowed the travelling team to stay in the game. Portora thought they had scored another try several minutes later from a well-timed crash ball from the other prop Marcus Crawford, but this time were denied for what the referee believed to have been a knock-on.

The pressure continued from the Portora team throughout the first half but they could not convert their chances due to some passes and through kicks not coming off.

Portora were slow to start the second half and it took them time to get back into their rhythm.

Playing into a strong wind they found they had to step up their work rate, maintain possession and keep the ball in hand.

This tactic was executed very successfully resulting in Alistair Crawford making a break through the Rainey defence from his own 10 metre line, dotting the ball under the posts to make it 12-0. Simpson added the conversion with the two points bringing it to 14-0 in favour of the home side.

Simon Barton and Jordan Gregory came on to give fresh legs at scrumhalf and second row respectively. Having to defend deep in their own half for the last few minutes of the game, due to weather conditions, the Portora side nullified a number of Rainey's attacks, but unfortunately failed to stop a 'pick and go' in the last play of the game.

This resulted in an easy score for the visiting team and a final score of 14-5 for Portora.

The players must be commended on their hard up until now and should look forward to their fourth round draw in two weeks time.

The squad and coaches would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who turned up to support them at the last two games and hope this will continue.

Squad: J McKane, J Gibson, M Crawford, E Murray, J Spence, J Kennedy, T Mills, N Aiken, A Lendrum, A Crawford, R Irwin, P Simpson, J Madigan, S Monaghan, R Armstrong, B Ferguson, M McCabe, J Gregory, S Barton, S Greenaway, C Irvine, H Patterson

Tweet

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 26 Jan 12

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

You must be logged in to post. If you have not registered with us, please do so now.

Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users do not have to complete word verification once logged in and can also take part in competitions and other registered user only features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.