Larne Win Against Randalstown

This week's game was a tale of power struggles, titanic clashes and betrayal. Both sides sported large packs, with W. Rea returning to the Larne ranks, and again the game promised to be very physical. From the start Larne seemed to dominate, attacking deep into Randalstown territory and allowing the opposition only the briefest of foray's out of their own half.

Piling on the pressure Larne forced the out-half to try and clear the ball from his 22 but B. Garrett had a plan of his own, masterfully charging down the kick, recovering the ball and scoring out on the left. G. Knox attempted to add the conversion but struck the crossbar.

Randalstown came back at the leaders strongly. Huge tackles on both sides kept the game in the balance, W. Rea, C. Rea and N. Kelso stopping the most dangerous ball carriers time and time again. Even the usual tantalising moves of S. Marshall couldn't create the space for the Larne backline to exploit.

Larne's 2nd try came down to a Randalstown mistake, C. Rea recovering a lost ball and driving hard over the line. G. Knox added the conversion. Still the opposition refused to back down.

More thumping tackles were exchanged in the middle of the park stopping the runs of Jones and McNee. Randalstown pinned Larne back into their own half with good kicking from their 10 and won a line out 10 metres out.

Stuart Johnston rose like a gazelle to steal the ball knocking it down for scrum-half Garrett. Garrett in a disturbing turn of events was distracted by the glorious autumnal colours of the leaves lining the edge of the pitch and attempted a reverse pass to his 10. The pass, executed superbly without looking, fell into the waiting arms of the Randalstown no. 8 who gratefully scored his team's first 5 points which they duly converted.

The visitors surged forward again from the kick off determined to undo their team mate's mistake and phase after phase of pushing the home side back was rewarded when W. Rea thundered over the try line carrying the ball and 6 Randalstown players to score his first try of the season. G. Knox added another conversion.

The second half started with both sides struggling to dominate. Randalstown lost a prop to injury and the game continued with uncontested scrums. As all players started to tire more knock ons surfaced as neither team could gain the upper hand. In the end the only score of the second half was by the home team. Capitalising on superior numbers on one wing, they managed to score in the corner but were unable to add the conversion.

Stephen Johnston came on in the last 15 minutes and immediately had an impact crashing through the Randalstown defence but Larne were unable to take advantage and score more points and game finished 19-12 to Larne.

A good defensive showing from Larne with all players stepping up to make important tackles. Hopefully they can take that into the cup game next week.

Line-up: J. Butler, B. Meikle, S. McWhirter, W. Rea, J. McNee, C. Rea, Stuart Johnston, R. Jones, B. Garrett, S. Marshall, C. Burleigh, N. Kelso, Ross Johnston, S. McAllister, G. Knox, A. Murray, Stephen Johnston