Carrick team win...
The Carrick 1st XV avenged their narrow away defeat earlier in the season when they
beat Lisburn by 19 points to 17 at Woodlawn on Saturday 14 March. This maintains
the Maxol-sponsored Carrick side's 100% home League record and keeps them in contention
for the Section 2 title. As in the away game, which Carrick basically threw away,
they made heavy weather of defeating Lisburn, largely because of a high error count.
With man of the match,Gary Leslie, at loose head, the pack were on top in the scrums,
the line-out worked extremely well and the back row were as energetic as always.
It was simply failure to take chances, a high turn-over count and the odd defensive
error which kept the visitors in the game. Tht said, Lisburn were at their most effective
running at Carrick and they always seemed to have a man in support of the ball carrier
with the ability to run into space, something which Carrick found difficult to deal
with at times. For Carrick, both props, Gary Leslie and Paul Greenaway, caught the
eye not only in the scrum but for their strong tackling and, in the case of Greenaway,
a number of strong carries. In the backs, Michael Gilmore again had an excellent
game at full-back and wingers Paul Saberton and Willie Shaw, when they got the ball,
loooked dangerous. Glen Picken controlled things well from scrum-half and his kicking,
particularly in the second half, was very effective.
Lisburn began with a stiffish breeze at their backs but it was Carrick who threatened
first when some slick handling by Karl Quinn and Aaron Mckinney almost set Karl Wilkinson
clear. Then ,Carrick were nearly made to pay when they allowed the visitors' back
row to break from a wheeled scrum, only a knock-on preventing a score. Both sides
were guilty of too many unforced errors in the first quarter and it was not until
the twenty-third minute that the first score came with Lisburn converting penalty.
Six minutes later, Carrick hit back with an excellent try. A kick by Lisburn into
the Carrick half was well taken on the run by Gilmore who fed Quinn and the centre
timed his pass well to allow Saberton to go outside his man and then step the remaining
defender to score in the corner. Into the strong wind, Karl Wilkinson could not convert.
From the kick off, a great charge back by Greenaway nearly set up another try scoring
opportunity for Saberton but the Lisburn defence just got across in time. With both
sides continuing to turn the ball over, there was no further scoring before the break
which was reached with Carrick leading by 5 points to 3.
Lisburn began the second half strongly and, after a missed penalty shot at goal,
took the lead in the sixth minute of the half when they ran back a Carrick kick and
a couple of missed tackles allowed them to breach the Carrick defence, allowing their
out-half to turn up on the wing to take the scoring pass. The try was converted to
give the visitors a 10 points to 5 lead. Carrick though were begining to take some
sort of control and their dominance in the set piece was clearly causing problems
for Lisburn. After butchering a great attacking opportunity off a scrum inside the
Lisburn 22, Carrick eventually got on the board after eighteen minutes when Karl
Wilkinson kicked a penalty. With Carrick's dominance up front begining to tell, he
added two more penalties within ten minutes to give Carrick a 14 points to 10 lead.
However, Lisburn hit back on the half hour when they again ran at Carrick from inside
their own half and good support play and missed Carrick tackles enabled them to get
in near the posts. The try was converted to put the visitors back in the lead. Their
lead was short-lived because three minutes later a superb angled run and floated
pass by McKinney found Andy Kincaid in space on the left wing ; the lock did well
to take the head high pass and beat the one remaining defender to go in at the corner.
This try was not converted but there was no further scoring, leaving Carrick the
victors by 19 points to 17.
While there were pleasing aspects to the win, notably the Carrick set piece play,
for which great credit must go to coach Gary Leaslie, they will need to reduce the
error count in their remaining games if they are to stay in with a chance of the
League title. The 1st XV have no game this Saturday and their next fixture is away
to Academy on 28 March.
The team against Lisburn was:
M. Gilmore; P. Saberton, K. Quinn, A. McKinney, W. Shaw; K. Wilkinson, G. Picken(Capt);
G. Leslie, G. Baxter, P. Greenaway, S. Currie, A. Kincaid. M. Hadden, A. McKeen,
P. McIlrath.
Also on Saturday 14 March, the Carrick 2nd XV had a 47 points to 15 win over Ballyclare
III. The Carrick scorers were Kyle Jordan, Craig Jordan, Ian Turner, Craig Brazier,
Alan Haire and Johnny Sheriff who got two tries. He also put over six conversions.
The 2nd XV play City of Derry II in the semi-final of the Crawford Cup at Woodlawn
on Saturday 21 March.
The 4th XV were awarded the League points last Saturday when PSNI II were unable
to field a team.
The fixtures for Saturday 21 March are:
2nd XV vs City Of Derry II, Crawford Cup, home
4th XV vs Ballyclare V, away
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