Carrick Seniors took on Claremorris in this Connacht J1c relegation battle at home last Sunday and fought their way to a 40 points to 22 victory but it wasn’t all plain sailing as the scoreline suggests.
First up was the start where Claremorris settled the better while Carrick laboured. On thirteen minutes the Claremorris scrum half Shane Meehan converted an easy penalty and then on seventeen minutes scored a typical scrum half try from a ruck jinxing his way to a try which he then converted. Carrick were 10 nil down and were completely at sea.
Carrick needed to score next in order to settle themselves and this they did with an Ian McGhee try following a great Declan Kelly assist on twenty minutes. Then three minutes later after some good back line play Daniel Bosquette broke through the visitor’s defence to score Carrick’s second try, converted by Senan Mooney.
Six minutes later after a good switch move that flat footed the Claremorris defence that man Bosquette found the gap to score his second try, converted by Mooney. Try number four came on the half hour mark after a great run by Andrew Hewson who offloaded to the supporting Patrick Charles to cross the line thus ensuring at least a bonus point.
Claremorris weren’t giving up and struck back with a converted try by Cathal Heaney but Carrick responded with another Charles try on the stroke of half time to leave the score 33-17 to the home team that were going to be playing with the elements in the second half.
The match resumed with Carrick’s supposed advantage of the elements disappearing as the wind decreased.
The match became a typical relegation battle with Claremorris chasing the game having shored up their first half defensive frailties and were next on the scoreboard after a Liam Murphy try on twenty two minutes, 33-22.
Carrick really needed to score to put more daylight between the teams and this they did complements of a Denis McCaffrey try converted by Mooney on twenty five minutes.
For the last fifteen minutes Carrick easily snuffed out all of Claremorris’s efforts and ran out bonus point winners on a scoreline of 40-22.
This result more or less ensures Carrick’s participation in the Connacht Junior 1c League next season. Three very close losses in the early stages of this campaign generated three very valuable bonus points. Next season if they can secure narrow victories instead of narrow losses there is no reason that this team can fight for promotion to Division 1b.
Carrick: D. Bosquette, N. Adams, P. Charles, S. Mooney, A. Hewson, I. McGhee, B. King, R. McCaffrey, B. Flannery, G. Kelly, P. Lavin, D. Kelly, D. Foley, G. Barry, D. McCaffrey, S. Guckian, I. Cullen, G. Murtagh, T. Hoey and D. Adams.
