Larne men progress well in Gordon West Cup

Having made an undefeated start to the season the Glynn men travelled with confidence but knew that complacency could be their biggest down fall.

With a stiff breeze blowing straight up the pitch, the visitors opted to play with it in the first half to try and gain an early advantage and they did just that. Garrett was the first on the score sheet with a fortuitous kick ahead and a mix-up between the full back and wing allowed him to dot down in the corner.

The Larne pack dominated play and presented the backs with some quick ball, Thomas and Burns continued their blossoming partnership in the centre from where they had left off last week and again causing trouble for the High School’s defence.

With pressure mounting a lot of penalties started to creep in, the pack pointed for the corner feeling confident and that they were.

Solid throwing from Johnston’s first outing at hooker found his man on most occasions in the blustery conditions. The Larne maul looked unstoppable when they got going, McReynolds in his new found love of the back row was happy to control from the back and take the just rewards with Larne’s second try.

Although dominating most of the play, Larne gave away too many penalties in the early stages of the first half.

They did well for the remainder of the game not to get a yellow card after being on an early warning. The defence that had been worked hard on in training proved solid as any of the opposition’s attacks were thwarted and the Larne line was never really threatened.

The game opened up a little before half time which allowed Burns to show a turn of foot on the outside and bag his first of the day.

The half time score sat 21-0 with all the conversions added.

Larne knew that they were not yet playing at their best and came out to start the second half in a strong fashion. It was not long before Garrett added his second of the day closely followed in by McReynolds for his brace.

Larne started to play the off loading game as they found holes in most of their attacks, Aston started to glide through a few holes and Garrett ran a supporting line off his shoulder to complete his hat-trick.

The visitors then lost a little composure and gave the home side a chance to put pressure on the Larne line for the first time. Having set up numerous phases, a very well worked and deserved try was finished off by their full back in the corner.

Any hope of further tries was soon extinguished as straight from kick off the ball was turned over, spread wide and Burns raced in for his second of the day. The High School heads really dropped after this and tries in quick succession from the hard working Bell and ever present Knox was enough to see an end to the game.

A good all round team performance proved well, a week off before a big league fixture away to Newry will allow the squad to regroup and iron out a few small issues / injuries.

Team (1-15): Lough, C Rea, Johnston, W Rea, Crampsey, Knox, Mcreynolds, Hunter, Garrett, Aston, Montgomery, Thomas, Burns, Bell, Marshall