Larne see off PSNI

The home side knew nothing but a win would do with Limavady and Lurgan already a few points ahead having played extra matches.

As expected, the Larne men were eager to get into the game quickly and set a marker down for the rest of the match. From kick off they put early pressure on the Police line and did not take long to cross with McAlister going over in the corner having gathered a delicate cross field kick.

Playing into the breeze in the first half made it difficult from kick off to clear their lines and Larne tried to run the ball out only to play themselves into danger. An infringement for a player going off his feet gave the visitors an easy 3 points to get themselves on the scoreboard.

Larne knew that they would play themselves into a dog fight if they didn’t get another few scores on the board early and kill the game off by half time.

Burns bagged himself a brace in quick succession and McAlister added his second after a well formed rolling maul by the pack. A sizable gap soon appeared between the sides, but as McKinty went on one of his rampaging runs from kick off, leaving his own team in his dust, support was not at hand when the ball was well stripped out by the opposition, their whippet of a scrum half disappeared down the pitch untouched to score under the posts.

Larne knew that they could not afford any more silly mistakes and seemed to buck up their ideas.

The rustiness that had been in their game for the first twenty minutes seemed to disappear. The home side began to start playing some beautiful, fast flowing rugby against the odds in the slippery condition. With good line breaks notably by the McIlheron brothers and Hunter, there was good support on hand which seen a well worked try finished off by Agnew in the corner to take the Glynn men into the half time with a lead of 31-10.

The second half started in much of a similar fashion to the first, straight from kick off Larne put in a great kick chase and Rea was rewarded with his hard work on the scrum when he pounced on a loose ball and managed to get over the line. The Police heads really began to drop and they never got back into the game after this.

Larne dominated both possession and territory from here on. As there frustrations flared they tried to start to disrupt the Larne play in an illegal manner but the home side were having none of it and stood their ground.

Further tries from Hall and McKinty put the game out of all sight and at this stage the visitors were looking for the final whistle. Not to be unsporting but in need of the match fitness, Larne insisted that play at least another ten minutes and PSNI kindly obliged.

As McIlheron picked up a try from kick off and Agnew going in for his second in the corner within a short space of time both teams agreed to call it a day.

A good victory after a number of weeks off sees the Larne 1st XV the only team remaining in Q3 unbeaten.

They travel to Limavady next week for the final group match of the Gordon West Cup.