Sat 16th Nov, 2:30pm. Bangor 10 – 55 Larne
For pictures of the I XV v Donegal town & PSNI follow this link thanks to Ben Guiller https://www.facebook.com/groups/23463133598/%20
Forwards dominate Bangor
by Stephen Johnston
On Saturday 16th November Larne travelled to Bangor and won 55-10.
With many players unavailable this week Larne’s 16 man squad consisted of 14 forwards and only 2 backs. The game started slowly, without an experienced 10 Larne relied on the strength of their “backs” to crash the ball up rather than kicking for position.
Bangor on the other hand had no problem with kicking the ball in behind to force themselves deep into Larne’s 22. Bangor made many visits into the 22 in the first half but the strength of the Larne scrum and superiority in the lineout from S. McDowell prevented them from scoring any tries.
Late in the first half the forwards broke through the Bangor line with D. Lough and S. McWhirter cutting a path before M. Alcorn made an impressive 30 metre sprint to score in the corner.
With S. Johnston and C. McKinty making a habit of waltzing through the Bangor back line it was only a matter of time before one of them scored a try. Sure enough before the end of the half C. McKinty ran a brilliant line to put him in for another 5 points to Larne. Bangor only managed a 3 point penalty for points before halftime.
The second half for Larne started like a scene from a romance novel, the sun setting behind them and the wind at their backs gently ruffling their hair. Bangor kicked off and immediately the story changed to an action thriller as Larne began their systematic destruction of a tiring Bangor side. Every Bangor attack was repelled with hard tackling and fantastic counter-rucking, J. Abernethy turning over a 4 man ruck by himself at one stage and C. McKinty and R. Lough stopping attackers dead with their tackles!
D. Lough and S. Smyth made several 30 metre breaks deep into the Bangor forcing desperate, last ditch tackles by the opposition to prevent a score. Larne settled into a comfortable rhythm switching between using the actual forwards to grind their way over the line for M. Gilbert, S. McWhirter and J. McKinty to score and using the back line running angles with support to put S. Smyth and C. McKinty in under the posts.
S. Johnston added 3 conversions and S. Smyth and J. McKinty added 1 each. The highlight of the tries being no.8, J. McKinty, placing the daintiest of chips over the Banger back line where the ball bounced back into the arms of S. McWhirter who strolled over the whitewash for his second try.
Bangor managed to force 7 points of their own. A kick over the top forced Larne chase a couple of the Bangor backs back to their own line, where J. McKinty, putting his body on the line to get to the ball first to prevent the score, was judged to have impeded the Bangor player, a penalty try was awarded and McKinty was given a 10 minute rest in the sin bin.
The game ended 55-10 to Larne in a fantastic performance that all 16 Larne players should be proud of. Thanks should go to all the guys who stepped up to play out of position. They did a great job.
Line-up: D. Lough, B. Meikle, S. McWhirter, M. Gilbert, M. Alcorn, S. McDowell, R. Williamson, J. McKinty, S. McAllister, S. Johnston, R. Johnston, C. McKinty, R. Lough, J. Abernethy, C. Weir, S. Smyth
