Valiant 24-6 win for league leaders Larne

Quite a crowd had turned out for this enthralling match between 1st and 2nd placed teams, cheering on the home side to victory.

With Hinch kicking off, Larne applied pressure straight away when a well worked short lineout was passed to hooker Stu Smyth, to speed down the line and be tackled into touch on the Hinch try line. Knowing they were up against a physical team, Hinch rallied back at the Larne team upfront in the scrums, trying to gain vital possession.

Larne had a few spoiled chances in the backline with balls not going to hand, but the first chance at points went to Hinch when they opted to go for the posts from a penalty but pushing wide away from the Larne uprights.

A stern talk from the referee to both front rows, got things back underway when Larne’s under pressure scrum, fed the ball back to Bobby Garrett who created a magical pass to out half McBride and spread the ball wide to Agnew, carving through the defence and beating his opposite number in style to score. Conversion by Agnew giving Larne a 7-0 lead.

Spurred on by the early score, the Hinch backline blasted back at Larne with slick hands and missed tackles resulted in a penalty for the visitors to take 3 points.

Hinch doubled their lead through a drop goal by the out half, but swift hands of Larne’s backline gave Jordan Burns the opportunity to ignite into life when he broke through the defence. Although Larne fumbled the next play, a charged down kick from Garrett was recovered and scored by Aaron McBride and converted by Agnew.

Another missed penalty from the Hinch out half kept their final points total at 6, but Larne pushing for a 3rd try, were denied through a forward pass.

Halftime score 14-6.

Larne’s in form lineout duo, Cameron and Liddle, were lifted high to spoil any opportunity for Hinch and was almost punished when Smyth again, raced down towards the try line but denied for the second time.

Defensive tackling from Peter Reid and Craig Gibson, continued to thwart all of Ballynahinch’s momentum as they tried to maul up the pitch but Larne kicking tactically throughout the game, wingers Kelso and Saunderson chased well to gain penalties at the breakdown. Agnew slotting 1 out of the 3 chances.

Hinch continued to fight back with line breaks but a turnover in Larne’s 22 was kicked up field and with further chasing from Kelso, won the ball to McBride delaying the pass out to Jordan Burns to score under the posts and wrap up the game for Larne in style, giving the large supporting crowd a superb performance all round. Conversion by Agnew ended the game for victorious 24-6 to league leaders Larne.

Managers Bob Cameron and Stephen Johnston were extremely proud of all 15 players that fought from start to finish and look forward to the rest of the season’s campaign.

Larne: C. Gibson, S. Smyth, A. Ferguson, P. Reid, G. Liddle, L. Cameron, S. McAlister, S. Johnston, B. Garrett, A. McBride, H. Saunderson, G. Knox, J. Burns, N. Kelso, M. Agnew

Photo: Matthew Agnew runs through the Hinch backline to score for Larne.
Photo credit: Larne Times.