| Both teams were a little unsettled in the first ten minutes of the game with Cooke getting penalised for somewhat lackadaisical rucking. However, Cooke’s Cathy Craig helped to settle the tension running in an early try.
Carrick’s loose head prop; Martina Ferrin used her strength to make some good ground with Karen Law touching the ball down to gain the only points of the game for Carrick, gaining a broken ankle in the process after a hard tackle from Cooke’s Maxine McMorris. We wish Karen a speedy recovery!!
Disgruntled by Carrick’s try, Cooke’s dynamics dramatically changed as they showed Carrick why they are the sole first division side in the province of Ulster. Cooke Laura Nicholl sprung to life with several astounding runs, dancing around several Carrick players before gaining her first try of the match.
Carrick were effective in the lineout and used many rolling maul to get the ball moving with Captain Nikita Armstrong being a daemon in the rucks. However, they couldn’t keep up the pace as Cooke’s Laura Nicholl ran in another impressive try.
Soon after, new girl on the park for Cooke; Maxine McMorris touched the ball down after a brilliant break from fellow lock Lucy Fagan; who subsequently converted three of Cooke’s tries during the game.
The tries were starting to come in fast and hard for Cooke as Laura Nicholl ran in her third try of the afternoon. She then proceeded to set up a try for flanker Jessica Elliot.
Unfortunately due to injuries; Carrick went down to 13 players and the game was called 20 minutes early, which disappointed Cooke as they looked set to run a lot more tries in. However, they got the win they had hoped for in honour of Rosie Stewart and look forward to the next set of cup matches.
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