Date 5th March 2011.
Location: Carrickfergus Rugby Club.
Head 2 Head: Carrick II XV v Ballymoney II XV.
What a day at Carrick Rugby Club!
Carrick ran away with it but Ballymoney are building for the future blooding young players.
Carrick were clinical with the talismanic veteran Terence McCracken not putting a foot wrong. Game awareness and an eye for space saw Carrick establish a comfortable lead within 20 minutes.
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Ballymoney did not lie down and are absolutely undeterrred by any criticism and are resolute in their conviction that after last season they are building a whole new I & II XV. Its a credit to any club to have the vision to do this. Will we all be wishing we had done the same in year or so.
The Carrick 2nd XV comprehensively defeated Ballymoney II in a League match at Woodlawn on Saturday 5 March, scoring five unanswered tries in a 40 points to nil victory.
There were excellent performances all round from the home players, who so dominated the first half that it was not until the thirty-fifth minute that the visitors got themselves into an attacking position. The Carrick back row of Robbie Williams,Craig Patterson and Ross Crymble competed well at the break-down and carried effectively, aided, in particular ,by second row Curtis Rea and hooker Michael Nugent. Michael Patterson was always alert to attacking opportunities which he and his mid-field partners Johnny Sheriff, Aaron McKinney and David Kirkpatrick were effective in exploting. McKinney, in particular, had an outstanding game, scoring three tries, including one with a classic out-side break set up by a perfect pass from Patterson of the base of a solid scrum. Moore was solid at full-back and, as well as kicking three penalties and three conversions, was effective as an attacking force.
Carrick took control of territory from the start of the game, with a mixture of effective line kicking and carrying and were 6 points to nil up after twelve minutes, courtesy of two Ricky Moore penalties. The full-back then put Carrick further ahead after twenty-three minutes with a well taken try.In a case of the “bad pass syndrome” ,Moore gathered a poor pass into mid-field and side-stepped a defender who had come up too quickly to go over. He added the points himself to give Carrick a 13 points to nil lead. Ten minute later, a fine angled run off the base of the scrum by Michael Patterson set up a try for Aaron McKinney as the inside centre ran an excellent line to slice open the visitors’ defence. Ricky Moore again added the ponts. Carrick, for the first time, began to falter a bit and conceded three turn-overs in quick succession but their defence held out and they went into half-time leading by 20 points to nil. It could have been more had the excellent Curtis Rea not been pulled back for a marginal forward pass as he was on his way to the line in the fortieth minute.
Rea was involved in the action early in the second half when he came close to touching down after he had charged down an opponents kick in the Ballymoney 22. Carrick extended their lead after six minutes of the half when Ricky Moore put over another penalty. Although Carrick were now down to fourteen men because Johnny Sheriff had to leave the field with a ham-string injury, they continued to dominate and Aaron NcKinney got his second try in the eleventh minute, again because he ran an excellent line to take advantage of another run off the base of the scrum by Michael Patterson. This try was not converted but Carrick went further ahead in the fifteenth minute when a miss pass from Michael Patterson put David Kirkpatrick in space and the centre showed good pace and strength to get in at the corner.Again the try was not converted. The scoring was completed in the twenty-fifth minute of the half when McKinney, who had moved to out-half in Sheriff’s absence, scored a try with a magnificent outside break which took him between the opposing out-half and inside centre. He was able to do this because the scrum wheeled in-field and Patterson’s long pass off the base was inch perfect. After this the home side, still with only fourteen men, appeared to tire a little and Ballymoney had a lot more of the ball in the last ten minutes but the Carrick defence held out.
This was a very good all round performance from Carrick who, for the most part, got the basics right. A solid scrum and and reliable line-out ball(apart from a few lapses late in the first half) enabled the back row and the backs to do their jobs effectively.
The Carrick team was:
R. Moore; Ross Moore, D. Kirkpatrick, A. McKinney, D. Crothers; J. Sheriff, M. Patterson; E. McBrien, M. Nugent, J. Hagan(Capt), C.Rea, T. McCracken, R. Williams, C. Patterson, R. Crymble.
