This Carrick team travelled to Galway for the first game of the season back in October and were roundly thrashed by Corinthians. They have waited 4 long months to set the record straight against league leaders and biggest rivals, Corinthians. They did this in style on Sunday at Creggs RFC as Carrick’s pitch was deemed unplayable the day before.
In a season’s best performance, the Carrick team set their stall out from the beginning when their excellent pack dominated Corinthians from the first whistle. The Carrick half backs made full use of the possession they gained and won territory with practically every play. Carrick’s hard-running second centre capitalised with a superb finish from 30 metres to leave Carrick 5-0 up after 6 minutes. It wasn’t long before Carrick capitalised on a handling error by the Corinthians outhalf. This led to a series of phases during which Carrick’s front five all played a significant role. The ball ended up with the hard running second rower who touched down near the posts. the conversion was added to leave Carrick at 12-0.
Despite this setback Corinthians soon found their feet and after a series of phases they found themselves inside the Carrick 22 for the first time and crashed over the line in the corner after four forward phases to leave it 12-5. Not to be outdone, Carrick responded immediately when the excellent Carrick full back gathered the ball inside his own 22m line, jinked his way into the opposition 22 with excellent support from the Carrick left wing – a feature of the game with these two. Fast ball from the Carrick scrum half ensured that the Carrick prop gathered and crashed over from 10 metres. Conversion added to leave it 17-5 at half time.
A feature of this game in the first half and throughout was not only the scrummaging excellence and domination by the Carrick pack but also the quality of the Carrick rucking and clearing out in which Carrick’s No 5,6,7, and 8 excelled.
Not to be outdone, the Corinthians pack made up for a sluggish first half by dominating the opening skirmishes in the second half and were duly rewarded by a good forwards try in the corner despite a great defensive effort by Carrick. 17-10 to Carrick. Carrick’s response was to go through the gears, use the kicking game where necessary in the strong wind. They maintained possession superbly throughout the second half and used their mobile backline to great effect and constantly had the Corinthians team on the back foot. Three quick tries followed in succession from the No5, No8 and the the first centre , two of which were converted , to leave the score at 38-10 with 10 minutes left.
The score would have been greater had it not been for a heroic effort from the Corinthians defence in which Carrick were held up on three occasions during the second half. , It must be said that Carrick were the architects of their own misfortune on a number of occasions on the Corinthians line when a smart pop pass to a better placed player would have been far more beneficial to the team rather than going it alone – definitely something to work on in the coming weeks. Carrick finished the game in a flourish when the two excellent second rowers combined again brilliantly to set up the strong running No8 to touch down and leave the final score at 43-10. A thoroughly deserved win and a performance that gave satisfaction to the very supportive crowd that attended the game.
This team’s second last league fixture is away to Loughrea on March 15 followed by Gort later in March. . Good wins here will leave them in a strong position and vying for promotion to Division 1 with Corinthians. Hopefully a few more great days out for this team who thoroughly deserved this excellent win against their biggest rivals. The game was played in a wonderful sportsmanlike spirit and an enormous credit to both sets of players and coaches.
