Carrick Youth teams overpower Donegal

Both local teams were keen to get back to winning ways following defeats away to Lurgan in their previous outing.

At U15 level, Carrick stormed to a 43-21 win. The home side established forward superiority with Jordan Devenney and Daniel McBurney making telling breaks into opposition territory.

Indeed it was a barnstorming run by McBurney which opening the scoring for Carrick after seven minutes. Not to be outdone, Devenney scored a second try which was converted by Jordan Robinson. A breakaway try by the Carrick centre saw the home side coast into a 17-0 lead with just 15 minutes gone.

To their credit the young Donegal side responded with a super converted score from their powerful running centre, but just before the interval Carrrick added another try when prop forward Robinson barged over the line. Jodie Gaw added the extras from the conversion.

Robinson added to his personal tally with two more scores in the second half, and number eight Devenney scored another to extend their lead.

Defensive lapses in the last quarter of the game allowed Donegal to score three tries of their own.

Man of the match: Jordan Devenney.

At U13s level Carrick comprehensively overpowered their Donegal visitors, running in seven unanswered tries to win 43-0.

Man of the match was flying winger Thomas Alexander who helped himself to a hat-trick of scores; closely followed by hooker Nathan McErlean who scored a brace of tries.

The other two scores came from captain Kyle Bell and strong running centre Joshua Beasant, with Ciaran Wilson knocking over a total of four conversions.

This weekend Carrick host senior league club Malone in Ulster Youth League Premiership fixtures. Kick-off: 11am.

Don’t miss this week’s Times for our regular rugby round-up featuring match reports, action shots and a full page of photos from Saturday’s Mini Rugby tournament in Greenisland.