Carrick suffer whitewash at the hands of league leaders Ballyclare

The home side were always struggling against the their sharper East Antrim rivals who took their chances when they came and defended resolutely when Carrick were dominating possession as they did for long periods in the second half.

Warren McClean’s men simply could not get over the gain line often enough to set up line threatening attacks. They defended well but the line-out did not function as smoothly as in recent weeks, and they suffered from their old problems of conceding unnecessary penalties and not holding onto the ball for long enough to build pressure.

The final score of 25-0 was arguably unfair to Carrick in that they did keep battling until the end and there was a large touch of good fortune about the final Ballyclare score. That said, the visitors were worthy winners and look more than capable of going on to take the league title.

For Carrick, hooker Richard Higgins was prominent in the loose both as tackler and ball winner, while Adam Gibney, Robbie Williams and Ryan McGonigle carried strongly. Indeed, if all of the Carrick players had Higgins’ workrate, it would probably have been the home team and not the men from The Cloughan closing in on the title!

Ballyclare started strongly and deservedly took the lead after 15 minutes when right winger Adam Wardrop rounded the Carrick defence to score in the corner. The try was converted from a difficult angle by Robert Smith.

The visitors continued to dominate teritory and possession and extended their lead with a Smith penalty goal after 28 minutes.

In the closing stages of the half, the home side began to come more into the game and were unfortunate not to put points on the board when a Luke Whitall penalty effort came back off the crossbar.

Despite conceding a number of turnovers to Carrick in the closing stages of the half, Ballyclare held onto their 10-0 lead until half-time.

In the early stages of the second session, the visitors continued to apply pressure but their only reward was another Smith penalty goal, 12 minutes into the half.

The home side then began to come more into the game and had a number of lengthy spells of possession inside Ballyclare territory but could not breach the visitors’ excellent defence. With 13 minutes remaining, and somewhat against the run of play at this stage, Ballyclare increased their lead when their open-side flanker David Lawther went over for an unconverted score. This followed a well directed cross-kick to the left wing where the ball was gathered, recycled and moved swiftly right where Ballyclare were able to exploit a shortage of Carrick defenders.

From then on Carrick pretty well controlled possession and teritory until Wardrop snatched a try in injury-time, after grabbing a fortunate ricochet and running a good line to score near the posts.

The try was converted to give the visitors a perhaps somewhat flattering 25-0 victory.

Carrick must now pick themselves up to face Malone II in a Conference League encounter at Gibson Park on Saturday.

Carrick: L. Whitall; B. Alexander, J. Cullen, R. Hamilton, J. Wady; J. Sheriff, A. McKinney; A. Gibney, R. Higgins, R. Williams, C. Rodgers, A. Kincaid (c), N. Marsden, C. Rea, R. McGonigle.