Toon take the spoils at Larne

On Saturday the JKC/Causeway Geotech sponsored Ballymoney 1st XV travelled to Larne still hoping to make the top 4 four with 4 games remaining. In a much changed side from their last game several players were making their debut , James Currie at prop, Matthew McConaghy at second row with Adam Crutchley & David Hodges on the bench .
With seven minutes on the clock, Chris Watson opened the scoring on his return from injury, a scrum just outside the 22 was won and ball moved to the centre where Watson burst through two tackles to score below the posts. Andy Young added the extras, 7-0 Ballymoney
On twenty minutes, a midfield break from Marty Irwin was moved out to Matthew Bell who beat two defenders to score wide right, conversion missed , 12-0 .
Ballymoney confidence was up and were playing good rugby, with both scrum and lineout operating well and the pack were carrying well , in particular big Matty McConaghy .
On the half hour mark the Toon went further ahead, great pressure in the 22 from Dave McKeeman led to a goaline dropout by Larne, this was gathered by Watson who drew in a few defenders before offloading to Marty Irwin who crossed the whitewash just wide of the posts , Young added the conversion .
The four try bonus point was secured on 35 minutes , a huge kick from Irwin landed a few yards shy of the Larne line , several rucks followed with the ball moving wide to Andy Young who scored in the corner , missed conversion 24-0 Half time score .
Ballymoney seemed to take the foot off the gas a bit in the second half as the played into the breeze and some of the old bad habits started to work their way back into the play and Larne scored their try early in the half. Their scrum had much improved and was giving the Toon pack a lot of trouble .However Ballymoney defended well when needed and when they were on the attack , they made several errors and were unable to add to the score .There being no further scores the game finished 24-7 to Ballymoney which keeps the play off hopes in their own hands .
“Larne is a tricky place to come and even though they are close to the bottom of the league we had to ensure we done everything we could to get all available points today and thankfully we scored the four tries before half time to earn the full five points .
Team manager Chris McIlmoyle said after the game “ I felt the lads who came in today were fantastic , especially Matthew McConaghy who carried ball hard at the Larne defense all afternoon . we are lucky to have strength in depth as our injury count this season is the worst I’ve seen in a long time . We now have a week off before we welcome Lurgan to Kilraughts Road . We have 3 league games left which we must treat like Cup Finals if we hope to finish in the top 4 . Lurgan too are in the hunt for a top 4 spot so we must be on top form and reverse their victory against us earlier in the season .We have a lot of work to continue on the training ground over the next two weeks to prepare for the run in . I would also like to thank the support we had today , it is very much appreciated .”