Ballynahinch 4th XV were comfortable winners by 66 – 5  in their Crawford Cup First Round match against Larne 2nds at their Mountview Road grounds on Saturday afternoon.

Larne started the game well and came close to getting the opening score as they enjoyed the early territory and possession. However, they were soon to get a portent of what was to come when a handling mistake led to Hinch’s fullback running in a long range effort to open the scoring. The home side’s out half converted the try and quickly added a penalty to give Hinch a 10 – 0 lead.

Unfortunately for Larne the pattern of turnovers being turned into tries was repeated through the first half as the rampant home side ran in a further four converted tries to take the score to 38 – 0 at the break.

Hinch scored first after the resumption, but Larne, to their credit kept plugging away and they got some reward when No 8 Stuart Johnston crossed to take the score to 5 – 48.

The scoring rate slowed somewhat after Larne’s try as the visitors battled hard to get more points on the board, but a yellow card for one of the Hinch forwards seemed to spark the home side back to life and a late spurt saw Hinch claim three more tires.

Final Score: Ballynahinch IV 66 Larne II 5

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