Carrick RFC mourn passing of Club President Peter Layden

It is with great shock and sadness that the Carrick rugby community awoke on Tuesday the 17th of January to hear of the untimely passing of Peter Layden, President of Carrick on Shannon Rugby Football Club.

Peter was a stalwart of the Club and served as a player, administrator and he was  Club President for a long number of years. His commitment and time to the Club was second to none. He was instrumental in promoting rugby in the Carrick region, developing the Club and in particular its move to Keenaghan on the Castlecarra Road and led the pitch development team there.

Peter will be sadly missed by all at Carrick Rugby Football Club and the rugby family across Connacht.

The Club wishes to extend sympathies to Peter’s wife Eta, mother Dorothy, daughter Sarah, sons Conor and Shane, brothers Leo, David and Brendan and the extended Layden family.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

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Seniors: In what was always going to be a tight and tricky match for the Carrick senior team on the road to Oughterard and this proved to be the case when they lost 26 -19. Denis McCaffrey, John Healy and Patrick Charles were the Carrick try scorers.

There were some good performances from Sean Hynes, Shane McGuinness, Darrach Patterson, Peter Lavin, Noel McDermott, McCaffrey and Charles but unfortunately Carrick fell short on the day.

U16: Carrick U16s came away with their second league victory in consecutive weeks when they overcame Claremorris at home last Saturday.  Carrick started brightly and scored a few early tries to get off to a bright start.

Carrick weathered some periods of sustained pressure from Claremorris, but Carrick were a little more clinical in attack. Try scorers included Niall Stenson, Max Germer, Alex Newcombe, Peter McEniff, Cathal Enright.

Peter Moran was accurate from place kicks. Congrats to Harry Afford who made his competitive debut. This sets up a crunch clash at home against Castlebar at 2pm next Saturday, January 28.

U13: Carrick RFC 29 Galway Bay 17

Carrick-on-Shannon RFC welcomed Galway Bay RFC last Sunday. After an extremely tough week for everyone involved with the club, this display from our youngest youth squad was a fitting conclusion to the weekend.

Prior to kickoff both teams stood together in memory and reflection of Club President Peter Layden.

Carrick started the game with a vastly experimental setup with the majority of lads playing out of the normal positions they are used to. With both teams finding their feet in the opening exchanges, Carrick broke through the Galway Bay 22 and scored in the corner after 10 minutes. 

Carrick built on this lead and went over again on 14 minutes after some excellent play between the forwards and the backs. As the half wore on the opposition fought hard to get back into the game, but Carrick's defence was solid throughout.

Just before halftime, Galway Bay snuck in on the right corner for their first try to leave it 10-5 at the break.

With Carrick rolling on and off substitutes from the first 10 minutes of the game, valuable experience was gained for all the players involved. With this, the game really open up in the second half. It took 10 minutes for Carrick to register their next score - after sustained pressure on the Galway Bay try line, they eventually broke with Carrick going over. 

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Galway struck back midway in the half after broken play in midfield. From the restart Carrick again took the game to the Galwaymen and eventually the Galway Bay defence broke. 

Carrick were applying all the pressure when great work by the Galway Bay defence - they turned over a Carrick ball on their own 22, and ran the length of the pitch to score.

The Carrick lads were not happy with what had just happened, and they reorganised themselves while the resulting conversion was taking place.

From the resulting restart Carrick hammered into Galway again and ran in under the posts for the simplest of conversations to follow. An entertaining game overall.

We wish Galway Bay all the best in the upcoming Connacht Cup.

Try scorers: Quinn (2), Zondagh, Murtagh, McGourty.

Carrick: Colton Quinn, Fionn McWeeney, Peter Flynn, Daragh Beirne, Regan Hoey, Richard Nally, Conor Lee , Ryan McElhone, Odhran Griffin, Gavin Hewson, David Carr, Shane Reynolds, Luke Maguire, Oliwer Koziatek, Cavan McGourty, Ben Cronin, Sam Kieran, Shane Murtagh, Nato Zondagh.

U14: Carrick RFC 5 Ballinrobe RFC 14

League leaders Ballinrobe visited Carrick on Shannon RFC on Sunday in the hope that they would repeat their easy win over Carrick in Ballinrobe in November. By the time they left Carrick after this fixture, they fully realised and appreciated that they won this game by the skin of their teeth.  

Hampered yet again by a depleted squad, the Carrick U14s produced their most sustained team performance of the year which was inspired by season's best performances from a few of the Carrick squad. This performance was on the back of another excellent effort last week v Claremorris.

On a very heavy pitch once again, Carrick dominated the early exchanges against a much bigger and heavier Ballinrobe pack. It highlights just how much this Carrick pack have progressed this season that they compete regularly against bigger opposition and can hold their own. However, on 15 minutes, Carrick contrived to lose possession when metres short of the Ballinrobe line. The ball ended up in the hands of their excellent first centre who evaded 5 or 6 poor enough tackle attempts to eventually score a superb full-length try under the posts which was converted. 7-0 Ballinrobe. 

Minutes later Ballinrobe scored an almost identical copy of their first try whilst under serious pressure from the Carrick forwards who unfortunately lost possession again in a hotly contested ruck on the Ballinrobe 22m line. Another weaving run by the same Ballinrobe centre resulted in their second try and, as it turned out, their final score of the game.

Carrick were undeterred and closed the half out in a dominant display of front running (Theo Gately, Malachy Glover and Rory Connaughton) and great tackling by  Cillian McGowan, Seamus McGuire, John Mulvanerty, Gavin Hewson and Rory McNabola. 14-0 at half time to Ballinrobe.

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The second half was totally dominated by Carrick. Season's best performances by Connaughton, Glover, McGowan and Gately ensured that Ballinrobe were constantly on the back foot. The Carrick line was never threatened and Ballinrobe only made one meaningful advance inside the Carrick 22 in the second half!

Carrick did everything but score and, arguably, had they used the threat of their running backs more frequently it might have changed the eventual outcome. Stout defending by Ballinrobe throughout the entire game kept Carrick at bay.

However, with minutes remaining and with Ballinrobe at sixes and sevens under the sustained pressure, Carrick got the try their efforts richly deserved. 

After yet another effective scrum , a dummy run by Gately to the right allowed scrum half McNabola to pass to outhalf Foley who eventually got the ball to Connaughton who cleverly completed a wrap-around pass to winger Shane Murtagh who still had lots to do from over 20 metres out. However, he touched down superbly after evading four chasing Ballinrobe backs. Foley was unluckily inches short with the conversion. It was to be the final action of a great game played in fantastic spirit by both teams from start to finish.   

A wonderfully observed minute's silence for our late club chairman Peter Layden was held by both teams prior to kick off.  

Carrick U14s now face Dunmore at home next Sunday in the hope that they can reverse the poor result in Dunmore before Christmas. This team is finally learning how to play as a unit and is finishing the season strongly which augurs well for the weeks ahead.