Ards 1sts welcomed Larne RFC to Hamilton Park in the Championship League on Saturday. Larne were the form team in the league sitting in 4th place and having beaten the 1st and 3rd placed sides in recent weeks, have shown how competitive the top end of the table is this season.

This week’s team was mostly unchanged, Matthew Bell earned a start at flanker and Adam Finlay came onto the bench. Despite recent adverse weather, alot of work during the week made for a good playing surface and a dry day invited a return to running rugby for the Ardsmen.

Both teams showed early attacking intent, but Ards were first to strike after 10 minutes. Good carrying and line breaks featuring Matthew Bell & Aaron May gave good field position and a pass to full back Rory Christie saw him step the Larne backline and race through for the try. The conversion from Joel De'Pledge was good and the lead taken at 7-0.

As the 2nd quarter was underway Larne began to take the upper hand and an extended period in the Ards 22 was denied by a dominant scrum and intense home defending. A kickable penalty was earned by Larne on the half hour mark and goaled to reduce the deficit to 7-3.

Ards were on the attack from the restart and what appeared to be a try for Matthew Kane was adjudged as held up over the line. The goal line drop out was gathered by Robbie Johnston and a snaking run saw him offload to the tracking Blake Lilburn who finished well for his maiden 1st XV try. De'Pledge added the extras for a 14-3 lead.

Larne had possession for most of the rest of the half, but stout Ards defence kept them centralised through to the half time whistle, the score Ards 14 - 3 Larne.

The first score of the second half was vital for Larne's ambitions and they started the half strongly, testing the Ards defensive line deep in their 22 for an extended period. Running out of numbers out to the right, but only a metre short, a loose pass was snatched by Ards wing Ethan Bell to run the full length of the pitch and score under the posts. De'Pledge's conversion brought the score to 21-3 and the game was now running away from the visitors.

To their credit, Larne were immediately back on the attack and Ards started to find themselves on the wrong end of the referee with a plethora of yellow cards, resulting in them being down to 14 or 13 players for the rest of the half. However, the scrum and line out held their dominance and were the platform to release some good backline moves that resulted in a penalty in the Larne 22 after 65 minutes. A succession of scrum penalties ended with a pick from No8 by Finlay, who offloaded to Trevor Devlin to crash over for the bonus point try and a 26-3 lead.

Ards were on the attack from the restart and from a scrum on the Larne 10 metre line, a chip from fly half Matty Hamilton against the onrushing midfield was gathered by May for Ards 5th try, Ethan Bell added the conversion for a score of 33-3.

A superb break on the left by May with a kick through almost saw another try added, but it wasn't to be as the game ended shortly after.

Image credit: Nigel Williamson