Strong Malone Power over Larne 3rds

Hoping to build on their opening day win over Ballymoney, Larne, who were missing a number of key players due to injuries and unavailabilities, still fancied their chances behind what can only be described as the biggest pack they had fielded in years.

Unfortunately for Larne, size and strength were no match for an extremely well drilled and slick Malone team, who had no doubt benefited by their own Thirds withdrawal from Junior rugby, with more options to bolster an already excellent side. Larne initially started on the front foot through big carries from Bobby Warrick, James McNee and John Shannon, however this early good work was undone when the opposition full back fielded a kick on around the halfway line and brushed off 2 or 3 would be tacklers to score under the posts, this was to be the story of the match, with Larnes tackling really letting them down, with too many players attempting to go high and being brushed off in the process.

Larnes only points came from the boot of Andrew Gibson, who slotted over a penalty to reduce the score after 20 minutes to 12-3, this was as good as it got for the home side, with the visitors running in 10 tries in total, capitalising on any and all mistakes that Larne made. The day got worse for the men from the Glynn when pivotal forwards Marc Gilbert and Peter Reid were forced off with injuries, which the team hope are not too serious.

After such a fantastic defensive performance to hold out Ballymoney with only 13 men in their last game, Larne will be bitterly disappointed with their showing at the weekend and big improvements will be required as they travel Antrim this Saturday.

Although heavily defeated, there were a few positives to take from the day, Larnes scrum was dominant, Luke Cameron slotted in well at hooker and showed up well, despite not having played there for 4 or more years and Alan Murray tackled himself to a standstill in what was the only defensive highlight of note. The referee stated after the game, that while heavily defeated that Larne shouldn’t despair too much and indicated that the opposing Malone squad are playing in a league at least 6 divisions below where they should be.

DOTD – Unfortunately there is no one moment which stands out, a poor, poor day from nearly everyone and not enough vests to go around.

Larne 3rds: C.Oakley, L.Cameron, B.Warrick, P.Reid, M.Gilbert, R.Jones, J.McNee, J.Shannon, A.O’Toole, J.Carter, A.Murray, G.Gaw, G.Rennix, J.Bell, A.Gibson, A.Hyndman, C.McKay, A.Ferguson.