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Yet again the 5s had a nightmare trying to get 15 players able to walk onto a pitch and following a week of excessive phone calls, 4 new faces were recruited to boost the ranks. The side was a bit thrown together with a lot of players playing out of position in order to resemble something like a rugby team. A rumour that went round late on Friday that the club was going to do a Mena by disbanding the 1st XV to strengthen teams further down the club was found to be untrue when the 1s put in a fairly convincing performance in their first AIL match at Buccaneers.

Although playing up the hill and against the elements in the first half we looked OK and only after a couple of defensive errors did Rainey manage to get a score beneath the posts. We never really looked like scoring for a lot of the first half but it was only after another missed tackle that Rainey extended their lead with another score which was unconverted as the ball went high and wide of the posts. Rainey players and supporters alike however hotly contested this.

The 5s then dug deep and rallied well with some decent runs out of defence. Andy Nixon and Ally McCulloch in particular made good ground. Quins solitary try was scored in the most stylish of fashions by Andy when the ball was spread wide from Barry to Ally and on to Andy who skinned his opposite number (not for the first time) before cutting across the cover to touch down in the corner. At this point (well after the try had been scored) the Rainey defence arrived and tackled a prone Andy on the back of the head leading to a suspected fractured skull, which thankfully "only" turned out to be serious concussion. It soon became clear by Andy’s ramblings that he would be unable to continue with the game and was rushed to the nearby Mid-Ulster hospital whilst intermittently emptying the contents of his stomach. He will now join the ever growing injury list for a few weeks until he recovers.

At 12-5 down at half time the score line looked reasonable for the second half if we could make good use of the strong tail wind. However, now down to 14 men our reshuffled side looked all at sorts. Rainey used their extra man to good effect and caused us a number of problems. The wind also seemed to change and our luck was generally poor. Rainey deserved to win, but following a number of stupid mistakes they stretched their lead with a further 3 tries making a final score which flattered them slightly.

Man of the Match was unanimously awarded to Andy, not just because everyone else was pretty poor, but because he had had an excellent first half making a number of breaks from deep within our half and finishing off a move excellently with his well taken try.

Dick of the Day was a two-way contest between Chris Magowan and Philip Wilson. Chris got nominated for continuously yapping at the referee and having already been warned about taking quick penalties from behind the refs back, he later re-offended "claiming I did take it from in front of him, the ref just turned round". Philip Wilson was nominated for trying to catch the ball whilst sliding on his back and for trying to catch the ball with his knee. During the post-mortem and as the DOTD award was being discussed Philip then said "Bagsy not be DOTD". Such a line could only result in one thing…Philip Wilson you were the Dick of the Day!

Best wishes must also go to Chris Magowan who will soon be moving with his family to London where he starts a new job. Chris is a founding member of the 5s and his excellent passing game will be severely missed when he goes. Talk of retiring the No. 9 shirt in his honour however have been quashed by Michael Finlay who still has aspirations of winning a starting place on the team following his solitary appearance last season against that team that rent Cooke’s back pitch.

One other interesting point from the game should be mentioned when a friendly Rainey spectator accused Rob of cheating at his touch judge duties before threatening the 5th XV manager when he told him to go somewhere else if he only wanted to whine about Rob’s decisions. It must be noted that several YMCA spectators had a run in with presumably this same chap last season also. The fact that this character was at least 60 and looked like he might collapse from the exertion of walking round the pitch to pick the fight makes a real mockery of the situation. Perhaps if he’d been more worried about the fine example he was setting to the toddler he was carrying the incident would never have happened in the first place. All in all though the hospitality at Rainey was excellent and the 5s will look forward to hosting this side in the return fixture in December.

Team: 1. Paul Thompson 2. Stevie Uprichard 3. Mark McCartney 4. Pete Stewart 5. Philip Wilson 6. Davey Vincent 7. Johnny McCullough 8. Chick Chalmers (capt.) 9. Chris Magowan 10. Roger Gilpin 11. Peter Semple 12. Barry Dowling 13. Ally McCulloch 14. Simon Corry 15. Andy Nixon.

Man of the Match: Andy Nixon

Dick of the Day: Philip Wilson

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