Corinthians 35

Rainey Old Boys 7

Corinthians put in a five-star performance in front of a large crowd in Corinthian Park on Saturday afternoon as they overcame a game Rainey Old Boys to stay second in the table, still on the coat-tails of leaders Instonians.

Corinthians went into the game with a raft of injuries, resulting in senior call-ups for a number of the club’s U-20s, but they stepped up to the mark in impressive style as the home side ran in five tries to claim a bonus point win.

The Derry side came to Galway looking for a third win of the season, and they played with a near hurricane at their backs in the opening half. A couple of kicks from Scott McLean tested the Corinthian back line in the early stages, but the home side dealt with the threats and played their way out of the red zone.

Some dominant play earned them a penalty which they kicked to touch for a line-out on the Rainey 22. Max Holmes nailed the throw to the middle of the pack and with the resulting drive that featured Oscar Garcia and John Devine along with scrum-half Joey Tierney, the ball was spread wide to Micheál O’Reilly who slipped in past the cover to score a try that was converted with the minimum of fuss by Sean Naughton.

Rainey looked to hit back immediately, and a sharp kick from McLean and good running from Moli Faiva forced the home side onto the back foot.

Mark Boyle played a captain’s role in setting up a good attack, and powerful play from Tommy O’Hagan and Dan O’Neill created the opening for Liam Montgomery to dot down, with McLean kicking the conversion to leave the sides tied at 7-7 with 15 minutes on the clock.

Corinthians would become the beneficiaries of ill-discipline in the Rainey backline as referee Jason Cairns became impatient awarding the home side three penalties in success and sending one of the players to the sin-bin following an incident that led to an angry reaction from Tierney.

The resulting penalty saw Garcia held up over the line but in the returning passage of play, Orin Burke controlled the play with great support from Ray Dufficy, and Tierney found Burke who ran under the posts.

Naughton’s conversion somehow curled around the post and while Rainey were a bit aggrieved with the decision, the score stood to give Corinthians a 14-7 lead at the break.

Rainey used their pack to good effect on the restart, driving Corinthians back in the early stages, but again Corinthians would use the elements to their advantage and their third try would come from a Rainey clearance to touch.

Pictured: Gareth Kilkelly had an impressive game for Corinthians.