Buccaneers RFC 19
Carrick OS RFC 35
Carrick’s Under 14 Boys kicked off their 2025 Connacht Cup campaign against Buccaneers in Athlone on Sunday. Playing in rain on a soft, near muddy pitch, the outcome of this game was going to be dictated by a battle amongst the forwards and a backline that would capitalise on every opportunity they got the ball.
Carrick started strong – despite good defensive work by Buccaneers who made Carrick’s forwards work hard to gain territory, Carrick’s ability to recycle the ball and retain possession got rewarded with a try by the forwards 5 minutes into the game. Carrick continued with their form, but Buccaneers were not going to make it easy for Carrick – they were strong defensively and quick on the ball at breakdown, which either slowed down Carrick’s attack at times or being rewarded with turnover ball or – penalties. But despite playing with the wind, Buccaneers struggled to get out of their own half.
Carrick’s agile backline runners found the soft-on-foot conditions challenging on attack, but a few brilliant break-throughs in midfield kept Carrick on the front foot on backline attack and supported by their forwards, Carrick managed to retain most of the possession until their next try by forwards. With the try being converted, Carrick was leading 0-14 approximately 12 minutes into the game. At this point Carrick’s relentless attack and pressure on defense started telling with a few off side penalties being awarded against Buccaneers, one of which was converted into a penalty goal from the 10 metre line to take Carrick into a 0-17 lead approximately 20 minutes into the game.
Buccaneers found a purple patch with a few minutes left in the first half scoring their first try of the match just before half time and with the try converted, Carrick’s lead was reduced to 7-17.
Carrick continued with their form and was first to score a converted try in the second half to take a lead of 7-24 with brilliant individual backline running. Despite Carrick’s lead, Buccaneers never looked like they were giving up, contesting well at the line outs and getting rewarded with more possession than what they had in the first half. But Carrick defended well, making it difficult for Buccaneers to attack with ball in hand, but Buccaneers changed up their attack with kicks behind Carrick’s defensive line, which was rewarded with a try (converted) to make the score 14-24.
Carrick responded with another well worked backline play from a string of phases, which earned Carrick a converted try. A further two penalty kicks saw Carrick increasing their lead to 14-35. Like the second half, Buccaneers found another gear in the last minute of the game to finish with a try to make the final score 19-35.
A tough battle between two strong teams played in good spirit – a great game to watch and be part of. Carrick will be continuing their Connacht Cup campaign next Saturday playing home against Ballina RFC.
