Strathendrick RFC 10 - 20 Carrick RFC

The day’s match ball sponsor was ex player Gareth Ihmig and his company Avoda Group Ltd – a big thank you to Gareth for his generous sponsorship.
This was the first game of the 2nd half of the league season and proved to be one in which Strathendrick faced a series of obstacles, none of which they could overcome.
The match referee ruled that a corner of the pitch which had not seen any sunlight was frozen past the point of safety so making it necessary for the game to move onto pitch no 2 where the 2nd team was expecting to play Strathaven. The 2nds were moved onto pitch no 3. Next up was a call 20 minutes before kick off to say that Carrick were stuck in traffic and would not be arriving before 2.00pm the scheduled kick off time. Carrick duly arrived and the match was started 15 minutes later than scheduled. The last obstacle of the day was the performance given by Carrick who, playing to their forwards strengths, broke their host’s run of unbeaten home matches.
For whatever reason, ‘Endrick could not produce the level of performance shown the previous week when defeating Bishopton. There were only three minutes played when the home side conceded what was to be the first of many penalties – on this occasion the attempted 3 points were missed and both sides continued with their individual struggles. With 15 minutes played ‘Endrick were to lose the services of full back Christiaan Lamb to a hand injury.
It was the visitors who were controlling the game in terms of both possession and territory through their forwards play. Then, much against the run of play, an overthrow into a Carrick lineout was exploited by the home side to set Rory Trafford off on a strong run towards the Carrick try line. When tackled some 5m short of scoring, the ball was popped to the supporting Findlay Kay who successfully finished the move to touch down wide on the right wing. Although faced with a difficult conversion, Kyle Campbell added the 2 points to give ‘Endrick the lead with 29 minutes played.
Six minutes later it was Carrick who profited from a penalty award as the Strathendrick pack were penalised for a ruck offence. The Carrick kicker duly added the first 3 points to his day’s total.
With 2 minutes of the first half remaining Kyle Campbell was called up to take the chance of a penalty award after Carrick were ruled to have infringed at a ruck. The kick was duly dispatched and with no further scoring the 1st half ended.
Half time score – Strathendrick 10 Carrick 3
After just three minutes of the 2nd half ‘Endrick lost their 2nd player to injury, number 8, Murray Calderwood limping off with an ankle injury. His place was taken by centre James Ogilvy and James Cuthbertson introduced to the back line. When play resumed with a penalty to Carrick, the chosen kicker missed his 2nd kick of the day. With 45 minutes on the clock, a speculative kick ahead by the Carrick full back was mis handled in midfield allowing the ball to bounce directly into the hands of the chasing Carrick winger who took little time to make his way towards the ‘Endrick posts for a 7 point try levelling the match.
Having battled their way back into the match, Carrick pressed for another score using their dominant forward play to good use. With 55 minutes played the pack rumbled over and touched down for a try which was well converted from the left hand touch line giving Carrick the lead for the first time in the match. The home side had, throughout the match, been guilty of giving away penalties and possession through their own errors and in the 65th minute once again fell foul of the referee allowing Carrick to add 3 points to their growing total.
Although ‘Endrick were forced to play the final 6 minutes of the match with 14 players, Rory Trafford being shown a yellow card as he defended close to the home side’s line, there was no further scoring and both sides left the field with Carrick the happier of the two.
Final score – Strathendrick 10 Carrick 20
It appeared that as Strathendrick could not reach the level of performance shown seven days previously and with no game plan evident, this brought about a level of frustration throughout the team which then led to numerous penalties being conceded (the final count was 16 from Strathendrick to 7 from Carrick), difficulty in basic catching and passing and poor line out tactics especially in the 2nd half.
Next Saturday Strathendrick have no game which will give those in charge the opportunity to carry out the required repairs. The next game is on 25th November when they travel to play Waysiders/Drumpellier at Coatbridge, kick off 2.00pm