The Corus sponsored Lisburn RFC continued their preparations for the season ahead with another friendly fixture away to Larne at the Glynn but came off the worst in a fairly evenly contested game which will have shown coach Bruce Cornelius and Captain Chris Kidd where they need to bolster their team.
Larne attacked from the start and for the first ten minutes of the game Lisburn were forced into defensive mode as the Larne back line probed and searched for openings. However, having absorbed much of that pressure, Lisburn then struck for the first score of the game. A five metre scrum was awarded to Larne near their own line but the visitor’s front row of Jefferson, Graham and Ferguson took one against the head and the Captain, Chris Kidd, capitalised to gain possession and score. The conversion failed but Lisburn had made a good start.
With the advantage of the slight slope, Lisburn now came more into the game and spent plenty of time in Larne territory. Noel Hook was full of running on the right wing but did not get many opportunities, while Ally Finlay at fullback cleaned up all the loose balls that were directed at him. Unfortunately, the Lisburn backline could not seem to find the breakthrough they so urgently sought and the rest of the half remained scoreless.
After the interval, Lisburn were facing the slope but the weather conditions were good for running rugby. Alas, Larne had ideas of their own and within five minutes they were fourteen points to five up following two good scores. For the first one the outhalf weaved his way through some paper thin cover to score under the posts and for the second one Lisburn were dispossessed from a loose kick ahead. The conversions left Lisburn with a lot to think about.
The visitors pack were doing quite well in the set pieces where scrums and line outs saw a plentiful supply on their own put in but occasionally possession was frittered away through aimless kicking out of hand and dropped passes. Midway through the half, just when it seemed that Lisburn were starting to get on top, calamity struck again. In a deft attacking play on the Larne 22 metre line, a pass was dropped in the middle of a promising movement and the Larne defence collected the ball to run the length of the pitch to score.
Nineteen points to five down, Lisburn again started to press and five minutes from time were rewarded for their work rate with a well worked try from number eight Andy Hamilton off the back of a solid scrum. This brought the final tally to 19-10 to Larne and Lisburn will have some thinking to do before next Saturday when they travel to take on Carrick in the first league game. However, a number of additional players, who were not available last Saturday, will come into the reckoning when selecting the team for this match. Carrick will be a tough nut to crack on their own ground and so a good travelling support is sought. Lisburn’s 2nd XV will be at home to Malone 3s while the 3rd XV travel to Grosvenor 2s.
Many Thanks to Tom Porter Photography for the picture in this post of Lisburn RFC Captain Chris Kidd.
