Dungannon kicked off and spent the first minutes on the attack inside the Rainey half in spite of the very early loss to injury of David Leyburn. Dungannon conceded a number of penalties in the opening quarter, some harsh and some unnecessary, which gave the initiative to the visitors with play based in the home half. Scott McLean was narrowly wide with a penalty but pressure told when winger Louis Regan opened the scoring with a try in the corner with McLean doing very well to convert.
Shortly afterwards Mervyn Brown was adjudged to have deliberately knocked on and received a yellow card, but Dungannon were able to come back when good work by the forwards allowed Adam Milligan to scramble over with Ben McCaughey converting, levelling the scores at 7-7. Cameron Steenson was another injury casualty forced off, with Stephen Todd making a welcome return as his replacement. Ben McCaughey extended the home lead when a Rainey player failed to roll away making it 10-7.
Dungannon were reduced to thirteen men after Adam Milligan was the recipient of a yellow card for a high tackle, despite repeated warnings and penalties from referee Cairns.
Throughout the first half Rainey showed that they were capable of playing good rugby, moving the ball well along the backline and with penetration, but fortunately for Dungannon a number of handling errors in good attacking positions throughout the game let them down and Dungannon were able to weather the storm finishing the half 10-7 ahead.
Just after the restart Dungannon received the third yellow when captain James McMahon was penalised for what appeared to be an innocuous push. Having two extra men Rainey were able to easily work an overlap and put Damien McMurray in with McLean converting regaining the lead at 14-10. Ben McCaughey narrowed this lead when they were eventually penalised for offside from just outside their 22.
A mazy run by the Killene Thornton evading several would be tacklers, almost brought a try but for a superb Peter Nelson covering tackle. From the ensuing counterattack with Man of the Match Peter Nichol making excellent ground, Dungannon were rewarded with another penalty putting them back in the lead, 16-14.
Mid way through the half with Dungannon restored to a full complement, substitutions were made and a fine run down the left wing by Mervyn Brown almost resulted in a try but for the forward pass to Toby Gribben.
With Dungannon now in the ascendancy and the referee prepared to penalise the visitors, a Peter Nelson penalty brought play into the Rainey 22. Another clean lineout catch and driving maul resulted in Stephen Todd working his way over at the posts to give Ben McCaughey an easy conversion and put Dungannon 23-14 ahead.
In the final ten minutes, Dungannon attempted a quick lineout deep in opposition territory but Rainey interference on the receiver went unpunished. Rainey mounted another attack which once again broke down and a Dungannon break out faltered. However, in this passage of play a Rainey player was yellow carded for a push off the ball and from the subsequent penalty and lineout Dungannon produced another driving maul with Ryan Abernethy getting the unconverted score.
Rainey had the last word with a Michael Nevin try converted by McLean making the final score 28-21 and giving them a deserved losing bonus point.
This was another hard won victory over resolute neighbours and certainly not made any easier with the 3 yellow cards. All credit to the boys for sticking to the task particularly when numbers were depleted.
This win helps to consolidate second place, 6 points behind Wanderers and 10 points ahead of Clogher Valley, in a very competitive league. An indication of just how close things are can be seen from the results last Saturday - 20 points was the combined points difference over the five matches in Division 2B.