Ophir 'Larne' the hard way again

In their previous two encounters, Larne had put more than 150 points past the Mallusk side so their prospects looked fairly bleak.

True to form, Larne opened the scoring within the first 5 minutes with a converted try by their outside centre. Ophir came back strongly and retained possession well but lacked the cutting edge to convert it to points. Larne showed the way as soon as they got the ball back, with a clever chip ahead and a winning chase for the touchdown by the left wing. The conversion was missed. Then Ophir sparked into life and scrum half Karl Davis took the ball from the base of a ruck and twisted his way through 3 tackles for a 20 metre touchdown. Alan Davis missed the conversion. Larne kicked a penalty for offside and added another converted try before Ophir number 8, Dave Lucas was driven over the line to put the home side just 12 points in arrears at half time.

Ophir's first half performance had been immeasurably better than the other Larne matches but it was almost inevitable that the power and speed of the opposition would take its toll. Within 15 minutes, Larne were out of sight with four more tries, one converted. Ophir's cause was not helped by winger Stevie Hasting being shown a yellow card. Despite that, Ophir managed another try, once again a brilliant solo effort by Karl Davis from a set scrum 20 metres from the Larne line. Alan Davis converted but that was the end of the Ophir contribution to the scoreboard. Larne capped a splendid display of open, running rugby with two more tries before the final whistle to leave the score, Ophir 17 - Larne 58.