Larne hold on at Lurgan

The home side played with the strong breeze in the first half and it was clear that they were trying to pin the visitors deep in their own half from the outset. This forced the Larne men to run out from deep and in the opening stages they did this to great effect, good carries from the new centre partnership of Aston and Burns saw pressure relieved.

As Larne started to grab a good foot hold on the game, Lurgan had no option but to give away a few penalties around the fringes as the hard working Larne pack rumbled forward. Andrews was clearly on form off the tee and add to early penalties to put the Larne side into 0-6 lead within ten minutes. However, it was not for Larne to go unnoticed by the referee and the hosts were duly awarded a penalty after some severe pressure in the scrum. The Lurgan out half duly slotted the penalty to half the deficit.

Andrews was next to get on the score sheet as the Lurgan backs dropped the ball off a set piece play after being put under a quick press by the Larne defensive line. As the ball fell fortuitously onto Andrews left foot he was able to hack through, showing neat skills and pace (for the second week in a row) to dot down before the ball went dead. Conversion added to leave the Half Time Score 3-13.

Larne knew that the game was far from over and the tactic at half time was to use the wind and keep the pressure on the Lurgan line, but things don’t always go to plan. The gritty Lurgan side came out of the blocks the quicker at half time and took Larne by surprise. Some solid work at the scrum and lineout seen them gain great field position and gaps started to appear. The Lurgan number 8 found a whole and glided in from the 22 to score under the posts to leave the scores at 10-13.

With plenty of time to go Larne knew it would be a bit of a dog fight and would need to dig in. Although the visitors were next to get on the score board with a well worked forwards try finished off by McCluggage, it was not to dampen the spirits of the home team and they fought on. After a few fiesty outbursts, with McIlheron in the thick of it as usual, the intensity of the game seemed to suddenly increase further. Solid hits from Hunter and McKinty thwarted a few attacks but as the pacey 13 found a soft shoulder he had an unchallenged run in to the line. Scores going into the final five minutes sat at 15-20.

As Lurgan sniffed an upset they again ran the ball out from a deep kick off and started to create a bit of space. An overlap was set up and Garrett had the option to stay out on a drift defense or go for the speculitive intercept. No prizes for guessing which option he took and raced off from half way to score under the posts.

Final score finished Lurgan 15 – 27 Larne.

A well fought out win for the Larne side to keep the momentum going. This Saturday they return to the Glynn to face Ophir in the next Qualifying 3 league game. All support welcome and if you would like a Christmas lunch let any of the members know.