Carrick 1st XV travelled to Gibson Park on Saturday 18th January to face Malone II in a Conference League fixture and were well beaten by the Belfast team. The final score of 36 points to nil does not however reflect the level of committment of the Maxol-sponsored Carrick side, who were without a number of regulars, and had to play the whole of the second half with fourteen men after losing hooker Richard Higgins to injury. The visitors defended well for long periods against the well organised Malone outfit and, despite the soggy conditions which made handling difficult, contributed their own attacking efforts. Despite Malone enjoying a lot of possession, they found it hard to break down the Carrick defence in the first half and got on top only in the second half when they were facing fourteen men. For Carrick, Aaron McKinney was heroic in defence at full-back, stopping Malone on a number of occasions when it looked as though they must score. Reece Hamilton had another good game in the centre, filling in as an auxilliary back row forward to win turn-overs on occasion. In the forwards, Ross Crymble, Robbie Williams and Bob O’Callaghan made a lot of ground as ball carriers, particularly in the first half. Until they lost Richard Higgins at half-time, Carrick had the edge in the scrums and the line-out functioned well with Chris Rodgers prominent. The major fault with Carrick was that they did not always get enough men to the break-down and lost a number of attacking opportunities because of that. However, Malone always looked the stronger side and fully deserved their victory, if not by the final 36 point margin.
In the early stages Carrick defended well, with Malone doing most of the attacking ,but it was not until the twenty-fifth minute that the home side got their first score. This followed a lengthy perid of pressure and, in the end, Carrick simply didn’t have enough defenders out wide when Malone spread the ball and their outside centre got the touch-down. The try was converted but, despite enjoying the majority of possession, Malone could not add to their score until injury time at the end of the half when they rumbled over from a line-out catch and drive. Again the try was converted to give the home side a 14 points to nil lead at the break.
Malone got into their stride very quickly in the second half and, now facing fourteen men, added two tries, one of which was converted, in the first ten minutes after the break. Although Carrick continued to battle bravely, another Malone unconverted try followed after after twenty minutes of the half. They added another in the dying minutes of the game against a tiring Carrick side to take the final score to 36 points to nil.
Carrick have a week off and then have a League game at home against Lisburn to whom they lost with the last kick of the game in the away fixture.
The Carrick team which played against Malone was:-
A. McKinney; K. Jordan, J. Cullen, R. Hamilton, B. Alexander; J. Sheriff, M. Patterson; E. Peacock, R. Higgins, R. Williams, A. Kincaid(Capt), C. Rodgers, B. O’Callaghan, R. Crymble, N. Greenwood.
