Larne v Limavady
Saturday 15th September 2018
Limavady were on their travels this week for the first time this season. After two excellent home displays over the last two weeks Limavady travelled with confidence to “The Glynn” in Larne. This is a venue which has proved troublesome over the last two seasons with defeats on both occasions. Limavady were determined this would not be the case this year and this was reflected in the quick start they made. Jody McMurray was the instigator of the first try when, with after only two minutes, he broke through in midfield. The ball was moved through the hands and ended up back with Jody to touch down in the corner. An excellent conversion by Luke Faulkner gave Limavady the perfect start. A second try quickly followed when Daniel Irvine showed the Larne defence a clean pair of heels to score in the opposite corner. Luke was again successful with his conversion attempt. Larne were next awarded a penalty and opting to kick for the posts they managed to score their only points of the afternoon. Limavady continued to play some excellent free flowing rugby and were rewarded with four further tries before half time. Stewart Roddy and John Purcell got their first tries of the new season. Jody McMurray ran strongly to score his second and Mark Woods also crossed the line. Luke continued his 100% record converting all of these tries. With ten minutes of the half remaining Limavady let their discipline slip and this resulted in some scrappy play. During this period they were unfortunate to lose their hooker, Luke Montgomery, to a red card when the referee considered his tackle to be late.
Half Time 40-3
Turning around in the second half with only 14 players Limavady knew that they would have to be at their best to keep the score board ticking over. John Purcell, having an excellent season thus far, scored his second. Following on from this both John and Jody were unlucky not to complete their hat tricks when they were stopped just short of the line. The next score came after good work from Peter Wilson when he created space for Adam Currie to dive over near the posts. As Luke Faulkner had left the field as a precautionary measure following a blow to the head, Peter took over the kicking duties and was successful with his conversion. The final score came when prop, Clive Scott, crashed through a tackle on the 22 to run in and score near the posts. Peter added the extras to leave the final score 59-3.
Limavady have now played three competitive matches this season and in that time have scored 24 tries. What is particularly pleasing is that these have been shared across 15 different players. Next week sees the team return to home duty with a Conference League fixture against Ballymena 2nds, kick off 2.30
Limavady 2nds also travelled to Larne to play their league fixture against Larne 2nds and were successful in recording their second win of the season with a fine victory by 22-10 with tries coming from Rohan Mulligan (2) and David Craig.
Overall a very successful day for Limavady.
