Good test for Larne 3rds v Randalstown

From the kick off the Larne men were immediately on the front foot, thanks to big carries from J.McKinty and Gilbert, quick ball allowed Aaron Carter to open the scoring, after a neat side step and dummy put him in almost underneath the posts. Carter converted his own try to make the score 7-0 within the first minute of play.

Unfortunately this early score seemed to hinder the home side, as some players thought that the game would be one way traffic and switched off. Following a period of scrappy play Randalstown drew level, a knock on in the Larne half allowed the opposition scrum half to hack the ball deep into the Larne 22 were the visitors openside flanker showed great speed to outpace the Larne cover and touch the ball down for the score. The conversion was added to make the score 7-7.

This try galvanised the visitors as the grew more and more into the game, a neat backline move allowed their centre to break through the Larne defence and offload to the fullback who scored in the corner to put Randalstown into the lead. This seemed to waken up the home side and Larne now camped themselves deep in the Randalstown half, after yet more good work by both G.McKinty and J.McKinty, Marc Gilbert smashed his way over the line, taking at least 4 would be tacklers with him.

Soon after this Carter added a penalty to move Larne into a 15-14 lead and the score remained this way until halftime.

Early in the second half Randalstown retook the lead thanks to another well worked backline move which resulted in their centre going over in the corner, the conversion was missed meaning the score was now 19-15 to the visitors.

At this point the Larne men took the game by the scruff of the neck, with their larger, more mobile pack taking complete control around the rucks, setting up wave after wave of attacks. From one of these attacks J.Johnson showed great pace and finesse to score in the corner to put Larne back into the lead.

From the restart Larne made their way back into the Randalstown 22 and more home pressure allowed Gaw to smash his way through a couple of defenders and go over for the try.

With their confidence levels high the Larne men started to throw the ball around more and played some good rugby, during one of these phases of play Knox rolled back the years, side stepping at least 3 defenders before straightening and crashing over the line for Larne's third try in ten minutes.

In the final 10 minutes Larne scored the try of the day, thanks to a piece of individual brilliance from O’Toole.

The referee had penalised a Randalstown offside and with the away side setting up to defend against a forward drive the Larne scrum half, looked up, saw acres of space out wide, took the quick tap himself and produced a cross field kick that Jonny Wilkinson would have been proud of to allow Gibson to gather the ball safely and touch down without having to break stride.

Knox added the extra points to make the scoreline 37-19 to the home side.

To their credit Randalstown never let their heads drop and they were rewarded in the last minute when their centre popped up for his second try of the day to make the final score 37-26 to Larne.

This was by no means a vintage Larne display, but the win was the most important team, meaning Larne consolidate their position in second place.

Larne 3rds: J.Johnston, J.McCullough, A.Ferguson, R.Robinson, M.Gilbert, Geoff.McKinty, S.McDowell, Johnny.McKinty, J.Shirley, J.Bell, A.Carter, G.Knox (C), A.Murray, G.Gaw, J.Carter, A.Gibson, A.O’Toole, C.Rea