The Maxol-Sponsored Carrick 1st XV continued their unbeaten start to the 2015/16 League campaign with a 23 points to 3 win against Ballymoney at Tom Simms Memorial Park on Saturday 24 October. This win means that Carrick are now in second place on their own but, more importantly, remain the only unbeaten side in Section 2 of the Kukri Qualifying League.
The match against Ballymoney was played in very windy and, at the end, showery conditions which made handling and kicking difficult. Carrick played into the strong breeze in the first half and it took them a while to realise that tactical kicking was almost impossible in the conditions. When that realisation struck home, they played intelligent rugby, trying establish a foothold in their opponents’ half and striving to keep the ball in hand as much as possible. They managed to play much of the second quarter in the Ballymoney half and went in at half-time leading by 13 points to 3. After the break, it looked as though the visitors were going to try the same approach but they were unable to sustain it beyond the first ten minutes of the second half and the home side, with some very good kicking with the wind now behind them, played most of the remainder of the match in Ballymoney territory, running out comfortable winners in the end. For Carrick, Ryan McGonigle was again prominent as a ball carrier as was Andy McKeen. Keith McNeil and Adam Gibney were responsible on a number of occasions for producing useful turn-over ball and also did their share in making the hard yards. Out-half Luke Whittal was excellent off the kicking tee, putting over two penalties in the first half when getting the ball to go forward into the wind looked next to impossible!
The first quarter of the game was extremely scrappy as both sides struggled to adapt to the windy conditions, with Ballymoney surprisingly not trying to make use of the breeze behind them to pin Carrick back. It was the home side who adapted the better, keeping the ball in hand and spending more time in their opponents’ half than Ballymoney managed in the Carrick half. The visitors did not help their cause when their open-side was yellow carded for persistent infringement at the break-down mid-way through the half. The first score came after twenty minutes when Luke Whittal put over a penalty kick into the wind and then followed up ten minutes later with a lovely low trajectory kick from 35 metres out to give Carrick a 6 points to nil lead. Shortly afterwards Ballymoney got what was to be their only score when they converted a penalty from the Carrick 10 metre line. With two minutes of the half remaining, Carrick made ground up to the Ballymoney 22, the result of a strong carry by Andy McKeen, then moved the ball left quickly to give winger Brian Alexander space on the outside; as he was going for the corner he was brought down by a dangerously high tackle which resulted in a penalty try to Carrick and a yellow card for the Balymoney tackler. Luke Whittal put over the conversion and Carrick went into the break with 13 points to 3 lead.
Ballymoney started the second half in determined fashion and, keeping ball in hand, managed to play most of the first ten minutes of the half in Carrick territory. However, they could not manage to break down the solid Carrick defence and the home side, beginning to use the boot to gain territory, gradually wrested back control of territory. They extended their lead with another Luke Whittal penalty at the start of the third quarter and then, with ten minutes remaining, put the result beyond doubt when right winger Peter Simpson went over in the corner after Carrick had sucked in defenders by going through the phases in mid-field. Luke Whittal put over an excellent conversion from the touch-line. The home side continued to dominate possession and territory for the remainder of the game but, despite going close, could not add to their total and finished comfortable 23 points to 3 winners.
In the conditions, this was a competent Carrick performance and, at no stage, did lt ever look as though they were in any danger of conceding a try let alone losing. They do not have a match next Saturday and then face the other side demoted from Section 1 – Donaghadee – at Tom Simms Memorial Park on Saturday 7 November.
The Carrick team which faced Ballymoney was:-
A. McKinney; P. Simpson, R. Hamilton, R. Bailey, B. Alexander; L.Whittal, C. Cambridge; A. Gibney, N. Hanna, R. Williams (J. McIlwaine), A. Kinkaid, K. McNeil, A. McKeen, R. Marsden (Capt) (C. Rea), R. McGonigle.
Other results
Elsewhere it was a clean sweep for the adult teams.
The 2nd XV won an extremely tight encounter against Ballynahinch 4s by 32-33.
The 3rd XV beat Ballyclare 3s 50 points to 12.
The 4th XV beat Rainey 4s 17-47.
