On a perfect day for rugby & on a perfect pitch at Larne RFC Carrick U15s defeated Ballymena U15s by 31 points to nil to progress to the league playoff final against Virginia U15s. The final will be played on Saturday 10th March at a neutral venue.
The on, off ,home, away saga that had preceded the match had left Carrick wandering like pilgrims seeking “the celestial city” & it came as a relief to everybody that at last the game came to be played.
Although heavily outweighed up front the Carrick forwards showed great unity of purpose & kept Ballymena on the move in the opening 10 minutes.
The ability to keep the ball & remain patient were pre match bye words & this is exactly what Carrick did, Ballymena were unable to get on the front foot & this in fact became the pattern for the match.
A period of territory & possession in the right hand corner allowed Matthew Fisher to cross for his first try of the afternoon following good build up work by the busy Carrick forwards.
Ballymena hit back hard but stubborn defence by Carrick broke down their possession once again and allowed them to turn defence into attack.
Once again Ballymena found themselves in defensive mode & when the forwards provided the platform a Cambridge pass gave Wallace the time & space to cut through for a try which he converted.
Ballymena then mounted a concerted attack which gained them a fairly kickable penalty which they were unable to convert.
Another turnover won by the increasingly active Carrick pack allowed Wallace to grubber through for a chase only to be obstructed not once but twice ,the half came to a close with Carrick 12-nil up.
The second half saw Carrick increase the tempo of the game as the possession stakes turned slightly their way ,the forwards although under scrum pressure continued to produce ball & with John Turner leading the lineout set piece ball was assured.
It was Conor Cambridge however who took charge of the game & “le petit general” marshalled the backs & fringe forwards in what was a master class of control.
Once again his vision & pass gave Sam Wallace the opportunity to display his talents with another telling break, score & conversion.
With twelve minutes left Carrick were not to rest on their laurels as Ballymena stormed back before Jake Porter broke from defence on a turnover which could have sealed the game for Carrick.As it was on their next two visits to Ballymena territory it was Fisher who got two further tries for his hat trick & put the game totally beyond the Braid men.
This was a great effort from the whole Carrick squad who have had little training & game time of late but entered this contest in a fresh enthusiastic & attitude filled fashion.
A fairly intense period of cup competition beckons now not to mention the league play off final on 10th March.
Carrickfergus RFC U15s, scorers M Fisher T3 S Wallace T2 Cons3
