The Maxol-sponsored Carrick 1st XV made it four wins out of five in the League when they overcame Lisburn by 31 points to 20 at Tom Simms Memorial Park on Saturday 20th October. This was another very mixed performance from the young Carrick side. After easing into a very comfortable lead in the first half, and dominating territory for most of the second, they allowed Lisburn to score 20 unanswered points either side of half-time and only re-gained control in the latter stages of the match. While Lisburn’s first try was simply fortuitous, the other two were entirely preventable and these lapses in concentration are something which will have to be addressed before the side meet the likes of Bangor and Ballyclare.
The Carrick scrum was under pressure for much of the match and the line-out did not function as well as in previous matches but the forwards carried strongly and competed well at the break-down. Ryan McGonigle did a great job in tidying up at the base of the scrum while Andy Kincaid capped a fine all round performance with a try which brought the loudest cheer of the day!
The home side were under pressure from Lisburn early on but held out fairly comfortably and took the lead after eighteen minutes when Andy McIlroy put over a penalty. They extended their lead two minutes later when out-half John Anderson stepped a Lisburn defender to score. The foundations for the try were laid by the forwards who took the ball into their opponents 22 abd re-cycled several times before the out-half got his chance. Andy McIlroy added the conversion points to give Carrick a 10 points to nil lead. After this, both sides were guilty of spurning chances with too many mistakes in handling and option taking. However, after thirty-two minutes Carrick went further ahead when scrum-half Glen Picken darted over following a line-out catch and drive from the Lisburn 22 up to their line. Andy McIlroy again added the points. Then, late in the half, with Carrick on the attack, turn-over ball allowed Lisburn to kick speculatively down field and the Carrick defenders could not deal with the wickedly bouncing ball and the visitors won the race to get the touch-down. The try was not converted but Lisburn further narrowed the gap with a penalty on the stroke of half-time to leave the score at 17 points to 8 in Carrick’s favour at the interval.
Carrick totally dominated the opening ten minutes of the second half but then, after fourteen minutes, some very poor defending allowed the Lisburn full-back to set of on a run from inside his own half following a tap penalty and he beat several defenders on his way to touching down in the corner. The try was not converted. Five minutes later, the visitors took the lead when, from a line-out in the Carrick 22 they moved the ball wide, re-cycled and one of their forwards forced his way over. The try was converted to give Lisburn a 20 points to 17 lead. The lead was short lived, however, because the Carrick Captain, Aaron McKinney rounded the Lisburn defence close to the touch-line on half-way and passed to Jason Wady, who had run a great line, and the centre returned the ball to McKinney who went over. Andy McIlroy again added the points to give the home side a four point lead. Carrick once again took control territorially and finished the scoring with just a couple of minutes to go when Andy Kincaid picked up turn-over ball on the Lisburn 22 and brushed off several defenders on his way to scoring under the posts, Andy McIlroy kicked the conversion to leave Carrick the victors by 31 points to 20.
This was another stop-start performance from Carrick but, once again, they came out on top. However, they will need to reduce the error count considerably and be at their very best when they travel to meet Bangor next week.
The Carrick team against Lisburn was:
A. McIlroy; A. McKinney(Capt), J. Wady, A. Moore, K. Jordan; J. Anderson, G. Picken; R. Williams, G. Baxter, A. Gibney, A. Kincaid, M. Ferris, N. Hannah, R. Marsden, R. McGonigle.
Fixtures for Saturday 27th October are:
1st XV vs Bangor, away
2nd XV vs Ballynahinch III, away
3rd XV vs Academy II, home
