Larne Grammar went down to a heavy defeat to East Antrim rivals Ballyclare High on a bright and breezy Saturday morning at the Cairncastle Road Playing Fields.

Ballyclare have certainly started the new season in fine style having already posted wins over Ballymena Academy, BRA and Methody this season and Larne Grammar were sept aside with a seven try blitz from the High School.

It was Larne who went ahead with an early penalty and the new look Grammar side pushed hard during the opening twenty minutes of this fixture. However Ballyclare began to get on top thanks to their powerful scrum and excellent work from their back row of D Allen, P McMechan and J Darling who competed strongly at every breakdown.

Ballyclare finally got on the score sheet after 25 minutes with a try from McMechan and they hit a tiring Larne side with two more before the break with Darling and Butler both crossing. C Millar converted two to take the half time score to 3 -19.

Larne rallied briefly at the start of the second half but before too long they were pinned in their own half with Ballyclare piling on the pressure. The Grammar didn’t help their cause by kicking away their limited possession and the home side may have fared better if they moved the ball through the hands more often, especially as centres B Brown and A McBride looked useful in attack.

As it was Larne invited Ballyclare to come at them and despite some heroic last gasp defence, with out-half D Andrews featuring strongly,  Larne were eventually overwhelmed with Ballyclare running in a further four tries in the second half. Prop A Reid crossed for the first, out half  S Beattie scored the second and winger A Butler dotted down in each corner. Despite coming close with all his kicks Millar only managed to convert one to take the final score to Larne 3 Ballyclare 41.

Larne: S McWhirter, R McAllister, M Robinson, B Hamill, M Easton, R Williamson, C Patton, J Elund, R McKinley, D Andrews, R Burns, b Brown, A McBride, S McIlwaine, N McCullough.

Ballyclare: A Reid, M Cogan, P Kennedy, S Barr, K Johnson, D Allen, P McMechan, J Darling, C Millar, S Beattie, E McKee, J Douglas, S McArthur, A Butler, P Ferguson, J Homes, C McIntyre.