It was totally appropriate that when two of Ulster & Irish rugby oldest clubs met at a sun kissed Cherryvale that they stood united in a minutes silence tribute to Nevin Spence his brother Graham & father Noel who so tragically died in a horrific farm accident last weekend.
The rugby community in Ulster is in a state of shock at the loss of such a talent as Nevin Spence
& the Carrickfergus RFC Youth Section extends its condolences to the Spence family at this sad time.
The rugby fare on offer from Malone & Carrick U17s unfortunately matched the sombre occasion as both teams fumbled & bumbled their way through a excruciatingly painful to watch first half.
Although well in control possession wise it was Carrick’s ability to force the pass, handle sloppily & lose control of the ball that kept Malone in the hunt.
Malone employed several big runners & it was taking the second or third attempt to get the ball carrier to the ground & make the ball contestable.
Notwithstanding all this Carrick were in control for most of the half & were ahead on the scoreboard by two tries to nil.
The second half resumed with Carrick’s best passage of the game with passes going to hand & correct options taken yielding a score under the posts.
This put Carrick in a more positive frame of mind & they racked up a few more tries by playing simple
rugby & improving on their ball retention for more that two or three phases.
Towards the end of the game with both teams reduced to thirteen players Malone were able to utilise the
Open space to score a consolation try.
Not to be outdone straight from the kickoff Carrick fielded well on their 10 metre line & found Wallace going blind on a mesmeric run which saw him beat a tired Malone defence for a wonderful individual score under the posts.
Such is the level of expectation from this side that they were disappointed with 38 points to 5 victory over Malone. This was a game where the objective was achieved yes but the performance was far from what is required. The lessons learned from this encounter however will stand the team well & with a number of players to return from injury competition for places is hotting up nicely.
Malone RFC U17s -5 Carrickfergus RFC U17s – 38
Congratulations also to Carrick Youth players Iain McMenemin and Bradley Young , both of whom represented Ulster at U18s level against Leinster at Donnybrook at the weekend. Well done boys.
