First Defeat Of The Season Roesiders
Glorious sunshine greeted qualifying three’s two top teams in Glynn last Saturday in a game that would go along way in deciding the race for promotion back to qualifying two.
With a breeze in their backs Limavady took the game to the hosts and for the opening 15mins were camped in the Larne half, but the Larne defence were in no mood to let the visitors get anywhere near the try line. On 16 mins and against the run of play Larne turned over the ball in a Limavady ruck and kicked forward deep into the Limavady half. Continued pressure resulted in a further turnover and a simple try for the No 13 to give the hosts a 5-0 lead. The conversion was narrowly missed.
This turned out to be Larne’s only venture into the Limavady half of the field in the first half. The Roesiders continued to dominate at the scrum and disrupt the Larne lineout, but the one area that Larne excelled in was their defence. Time and time again Limavady ran at them, but time and time again Larne meet what ever was thrown at them. At half time all Limavady had to show for their efforts was one Greg Jordan penalty.
HT Larne 3 Limavady 5
Limavady continued to dominate the ball in the second half, but aided by the breeze Larne were able to force them back deep into their own half anytime they got any ball and midway through the half extended their lead to five points from a penalty. This began a rather frustrating period for the Roesiders. The penalty count began to rise as well as the error count, and failure to deal with a loose ball was punished by Larne’s full back and he touched down in the corner for a ten point lead.
Limavady’s dominance of the set play continued and in injury time Chrissy Hunter put full back Peter Wilson into the corner for what proved to be the final score of the day.
Full Time
Larne 13 Limavady 8
All In all a very frustrating day for the 1st XV, dominant up front and with so much possession and nothing to show for it. But credit to the Larne defence who defended heroically from the first minute to the last.
Limavady team: P. Wilson. T McClelland. A. Kilburn. C. Hunter. S. Roddy. G. Jordan. J. Miller. C. Scott. I. Campbell. J. McCollum. M. McCollum. P. Semple. B. Hamilton. R. McCollum.
In Saturday’s other games the 2nds XV had a terrific win away to Portadown 3rds 31-22 and the Saracens lost to Tir Chonaill 36-15.
Next weeks fixtures see the 1st XV on the road again, this time to play the P.S.N.I. The 2nds XV are home to Lisburn 2nds and the Saracens have no game.
