The Maxol-sponsored Carrick 1st XV returned to League action on Saturday 6 February
and made it five wins out of ten with a comfortable 28 points to 7 victory away at
Lisburn. Carrick were always in control but the score-line does not really reflect
their dominance.Since they last played Lisburn in mid-December, Carrick had played
just one match and it showed in the error count. That said, the pack was on top in
both tight and loose, with blind-side Matt Hadden putting in a storming performance
to gain the "man of the match" award. The front five put in another good performance
in the scrum and Stuart Currie and Andy Kincaid, aided by Matt Hadden, dominated
the line-out. Once again, Carrick took the field with a re-shuffled back-line but,
despite some confusion at times, they produced three of the four tries. Aaron McKinney
put in a fine performance at full-back and deservedly got two of the tries. Karl
Wilkinson was back in action at out-half for the first time since the Ballyclare
match and put over two penalties and a conversion.
The early exchanges were fairly even but Carrick took the lead on eight minutes with
a well- struck Wilkinson penalty and then extended their lead three minutes later
with the first of Aaron McKinney's tries. This came following a break by scrum-half
Michael Patterson, a charge by Matt Hadden and quick ruck ball which allowed McKinney
to find space in the outside centre channel to go over. Karl Wilkinson added the
points. Lisburn hit back a couple of minutes later when they breached the Carrick
defence out wide and quick ruck ball allowed one of their forwards to dive over.The
try was converted to make the score 10 points to 7 in Carrick's favour. However,
the visitors increased their lead on seventeen minutes when hooker Glen Baxter touched
down after a line-out catch and drive. The try was not converted. Then , with twenty
minutes gone, Carrick got their third try when Aaron McKinney crossed for the second
time. The try came after Andy McKeen had won turn-over ball and Karl Wilkinson found
an excellent touch on the Lisburn 22. Stuart Currie "stole" the Lisburn throw to
set up Michael Patterson for one of his sniping runs and, when the ball was re-cycled
quickly, a beautifully timed pass by Karl Quinn put McKinney in space to score. This
try was not converted, leaving Carrick in the lead by 20 points to 7. Following this
high-scoring opening quarter, the errors by both sides began to mount and the only
further score in the first half was a Karl Wlkinson penalty after twenty-six minutes.
The second half was a dull, scrappy affair witrh Carrick in control but unable to
finish Lisburn off primarily because a lack of precision in execution. They did score
another try after eleven minutes of the half. Lisburn turned over ball from a scrum
close to their own line, Paul McIlrath made ground and Michael Patterson drew a defender
to put Kyle Jordan into space to score in the corner. The try was not converted.
From this point on the game more or less petered out although Carrick had a couple
of scoring chances. Lisburn finished off by beseiging the Carrick line for the last
five minutes but were unable to break down the visitors' defence.
While it was good to get a win, after the disappointment at Dromore in the Towns'
Cup, Carrick will need to improve their accuracy, and cut down the error rate, when
they meet unbeaten Academy at Woodlawn on Saturday 13 February. That said, the Carrick
pack out-played their opposite numbers the last time the two sides met and Academy
could well face a difficult afternoon trying to defend their unbeaten record.
The Carrick team against Lisburn was:
A. McKinney; J. Neill, J. Wady, K. Quinn, K. Jordan; K. Wilkinson, M. Patterson;
D. McKeen, G. Baxter, P. Greenaway, S. Currie(Capt), A. Kincaid, M. Hadden, A. McKeen,
P. McIlrath.
The Carrick 2nd XV made it through to the next round of the Crawford Cup, defeating
Ballynahinch IV by 29 points to 12.Man of the match, Glen Picken, got two tries and
Willie Shaw, Terry McCracken and Wes Anderson one each. Anderson converted two of
the tries.Carrick now meet Ballynahinch III in the next round.
Malone IV failed to turn up for their match with the 3rd XV so Carrick were awarded
the League points.
The Under 19s travelled to Ballyclare with a much changed side and went down by 13
points to 5, Danny Flowers getting the Carrick try. Despite all the changes, the
Carrick side acquitted themselves well.
The under 17s had a convincing 32 points to 3 victory over Ballymena but the Under
15s lost their re-arranged League play-off game against Virginia by 20 points to
12. The game was played at Armagh and , by all accounts, Carrick were somewhat unlucky
to lose in the end, having led for long periods of the game.
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