Playing their first match in three weeks, a much changed Carrick 1st XV side went down to a heavy defeat against Queen’s University 2nds in the Conference at the Dub on Saturday 3 March. After a competitive first quarter, at the end of which Carrick held a narrow lead, a combination of good counter-attacking play by Queen’s and poor defending by Carrick allowed the students to initially control and, then totally dominate, the match. This was not totally surprising given the number of Under 19s in the Carrick side and the fact that this team had essentially never played together before. By contrast, their opponents, who inflicted a heavy defeat on Bangor earlier in the season, were well organised and clearly very comfortable playing together. For Carrick, Michael Patterson had an excellent game at scrum-half, took his two tries very well and was unlucky not to get a third. Curtis Rea and Mark Patterson did well in both line-out and loose and blind-side Nathan Greenwood carried and tackled bravely throughout the match.
Carrick got off to a bad start when poor defending allowed Queen’s to mount an attack from inside their own half and score near the posts. The try was converted. After this, Carrick began to establish themselves in Queen’s territory and ,deservedly at this stage, got a try of their own after fifteen minutes. Michael Patterson started the move on the blind-side on half-way, following a strong carry by Nathan Greenwood, and fed Aaron McKinney who beat two defenders and made ground into the 22 before giving the return pass to Patterson who touched down. The try was not converted but the scrum-half gave Carrick the lead three minutes later when he raced away on the blind-side after his forwards had wheeled a scrum on the Queen’s 22 and crossed unopposed. Aaron McKinney kicked the conversion to put the visitors in the lead by 12 points to 7. However, the home side’s defensive capabilities and their ability to attack from anywhere allowed them to gradually take control and score three tries in the second quarter to take a 28 points to 12 lead into the break. In this they were aided by some very poor Carrick tackling.
In the third quarter, Carrick did put up some resistance and, after conceding a try five minutes into the second half, they had a period of territorial dominance during which Michael Patterson appeared to have touched down for his hat-trick after a catch and drive but the referee didn’t award the try. This was to be their last serious threat to the hosts who took complete control in the final quarter and ran in four more tries against an increasingly demoralised Carrick side to give themselves a 61 points to 12 winning margin.
Next week, Carrick travel to Omagh where another difficult task awaits them.
The Carrick team against Queen’s was:
B. Alexander; M. Brush, D. Crothers, A. Armstrong, R. Hamilton; A. McKinney, M. Patterson; E. McBrien, R. Higgins, A. Gibney, A. Kincaid, C. Rea, N. Greenwood, M. Patterson, R. McGonigal.
Fixtures for Saturday 10 March are:
1st XV vs Omagh, away
2nd XV vs Omagh II, away
3rd XV vs Grosvenor III, away
5th XV vs QUB IV, home
