Larne made the return trip to Stormont today following their recent defeat at the hands of Service at Glynn.

There was always the danger of home team complacency off the back of the recent 33-15 victory.

The visitors started brightly and caught the Service defence asleep to take a 7 point lead in the first few minutes. This awoke the home side who slowly got into the game. With the home forwards then enjoying domination in the line-outs and scrums, points would surely follow soon. Larne defence held firm before conceding a penalty in front of the posts for Adam Wright to reduce the deficit by 3 points.

Civil Service 3, Larne 7.

Thomas Brennan, making his debut, put in some crunching tackles and the rest of the pack followed suit enjoying dominance with pick and go's. The pressure paid off after 18 minutes with the backs now also spreading the ball the width of the pitch for Jonny Kennedy to score a try in the corner on his return from injury. The conversion was tricky, Adam Wright added the points.

Civil Service 10, Larne 7.

Confidence was up and the home side played some cavalier rugby. Larne held firm before Matt Wilson crossed the line after another 5 minutes, and Adam Wright added the conversion.

Civil Service 17, Larne 7.

The remainder of the half played out with the scoreboard surprisingly unchanged. On days like this half-time can sometimes kill the momentum, and with some player loans to the visitors the second half lacked the earlier continuity. Whilst Service re-grouped Larne upped their game and their no.12 was to score untouched under the posts. Conversion added.

Civil Service 17, Larne 14.

The Larne no.12 dominated their plays and the Service defence stood off allowing him too much space. Larne sensed this and pressed forward. Penalty awarded to Larne, scores even, 10 minutes of the second half played. Service had surrendered a 10 point lead and needed to stem the tide. Times like this need leaders and for the next 20 minutes the 2 sides fought out a tight competitive game. A few try scoring opportunities went astray with loose final passes, but the team kept their cool and kept working their way up the pitch. After sustained pressure in the Larne 22 Service were awarded a penalty with 5 minutes to go. The easy option would have been to kick the penalty for a 3 point lead. Instead Service opted for the scrum, for Seamus Gilsenan to pick up and evade a number of tackles before crossing the line under the posts. Adam Wright added the conversion. The rest of the game played out in the Larne 22 but no more points were added.

Final score, Civil Service 24, Larne 17.

The guys showed character today to recover the match after allowing the visitors to come back into the game. We don't normally name a man of the match but we make an exception in Thomas Brennan who was playing his first ever game of rugby today - superb. Andrew Lilburn led by example, playing and communicating, each and every player followed suit.

Civil Service (NI) RFC

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