The Maxol-sponsored Carrick 1st XV completed the double over local rivals Larne on Saturday 29th December with a deserved 21 points to 7 victory at Tom Simms Memorial Park. After a first half which the visitors shaded, on the score-board and in general play, and an uneasy start to the second half, Carrick gradually took control and by the end were completely on top. The foundations of the Carrick success were laid by the pack which eventually emerged on top in the scrum, was solid in the line-out and worked hard in the loose; and non harder than flankers Neil Hanna and Mark Patterson. Ryan McGonigle was again impressive as a ball carrier as were Andy Kincaid, Robbie Williams and Glen Baxter. Behind the pack, scrum-half Ken Topping kicked well out of hand and kept the Larne back row on their toes with his sniping runs. With some excellent line kicking, Karl Wilkinson ensured that Carrick took advantage of the breeze in the second half to play the game in the right parts of the field. Captain Aaron Mckinney put in some incisive runs from full-back and, as the game progressed, the three-quarters began to make inroads into the Larne defence. The problem of getting the right runners in support of the ball-carrier when a break has been made, accompanied by a tendency to force the final pass, was again evident . However, such was Carrick’s control in the last thirty minutes or so, this scarcely mattered and they picked up one well-worked try and one opportunist score to win by a comfortable margin in the end.
The home side began well and took the lead after five minutes with a Karl Wilkinson penalty, awarded for an infringement on the ground after a Larne clearance kick had been charged down. From this point on though, Larne began to take advantage of the moderate breeze in their favour and, with the better kick and chase game, kept Carrick in their own half for much of the time. They deservedly took the lead after sixteen minutes when their full-back won the race to touch down after a clever grubber kick past the advancing Carrick defence. The try was converted from the touch-line to give the visitors a 7 points to 3 lead which they held onto comfortably up to half-time. However, despite a Carrick player being yellow-carded for interfering with the taking of a tap penalty, and getting into good field position on a number of occasions,Larne could not add to their score in the run up to the interval.
Carrick brought themselves to within one point of Larne in the third minute of the second half with another Karl Wilkinson penalty. This followed a period of pressure on the Larne line with the initial thrust coming from Karl Love who ran an excellent line to take the ball into the visitors’ 22. From this point on, Carrick began to dominate territory and possession, with their ball carrying forwards begining to cause problems for the Larne defence. Twelve minutes into the half, the home side re-gained the lead with a try by centre Johnny Sheriff. A well directed kick by Wilkinson produced a poor clearance effort by Larne and the ball was taken uo to the visitors’ 22 by Aaron Mckinney, re-cycled and moved right, where Larne were short of defenders, and Sheriff was able to step inside and score under the posts.Wilkinson added the conversion points. After this, the efforts of the Carrick forwards and the line kicking of their half-backs consigned Larne to defending in their own half and, at best, attempting to mount attacks from in and around their own 22. Despite their dominance though, Carrick found it hard to add to their score, letting a number of chances go begging. Towards the end of normal time, another Karl Wilkison penalty put put Carrick more than one score clear and then ,well into injury time, Adie Moore picked up a loose ball from a failed Larne effort to run out of their own 22 and stepped two defenders to score. The try was not converted but the final score of 21 points to 7 was perhaps a fair reflection of Carrick’s second half dominance.
The win, Carrick’s first since October, puts some day-light between them and the relegation zone but they will need to continue to produce performances like that in the second half on Saturday to take themselves to the safety of mid-table. Next week ,Carrick travel to Dungannon in the first round of the Towns’ Cup.
The Carrick team which faced Larne was:-
A. McKinney(Capt); A. Moore, J. Sheriff, J. Wady, K. Love; K. Wilkinson, K. Topping; A. Gibney, G. Baxter, R. Williams, A. Kincaid, C. Rea, M. Patterson, N. Hanna, R. McGonigle.
Fixtures for Saturday 5 January are;-
1st XV vs Dungannon II, Towns’ Cup, away
2nd XV vs CIYMS II, away
4th XV vs Donegal II, McCambley Cup, away
