Lisburn Seconds make light work of Portadown

The promised sunshine never arrived and instead the game was played in a constant drizzle and heavy underfoot conditions.

Lisburn showed their determination from the start and big second row Andrew Barron opened the score with a well taken try after just five minutes.

Minutes later the score was doubled to 14-0 after Number Eight, Mark O’Brien, picked up from the back of a scrum, broke the covering tackle and ran through to put outside centre Robin Brown over near the posts.

Portadown recovered from this poor start and started to put pressure on the home team. During one of their incursions into Lisburn territory leading up to half time, Chris O’Brien was injured and in line with concussion protocols had to leave the field.

Nevertheless, it was Lisburn who finished the half the stronger when Brown broke through to score. The interval whistle arrived with the home team leading 19-0.

The second period was mostly Lisburn and within five minutes of the restart, a strong driving maul fractured the Portadown pack and prop Phil Jefferson came up smiling with the ball to make it 24-0.

On the 15 minute mark, Lisburn increased their lead to 29-0 when the ball was fed out the backline to Gary Hamilton who scored in the corner.

Portadown then came back into the game to score when a loose kick out of defence was gathered and chipped over the Lisburn backline for the winger to chase.

He cleverly gathered the ball from the floor at pace to dive over and score.

However, with 15 minutes remaining, Lisburn were not finished scoring and another maul on the Portadown line saw Jefferson repeating his efforts with a well taken try for the pack. Within minutes, the score was brought to 39-5 after winger Kyle Jardine put substitute second row Chris Magill in for the final try of the game - just reward for the supporting 18 year-old playing his first season in senior rugby.

Meanwhile, Lisburn’s Third XV went down narrowly to Lurgan Seconds 27-24, a step nearer their true ability and hopefully a stepping stone to improved performances as the season progresses.