Match Report from: CALUM HEUGHAN

A sun soaked Violetbank was the backdrop for ARFC Ladies Day with Carrick travelling down from Maybole for the league opener on a hard dry pitch.

Carrick were first out of the blocks and on the score sheet with a try and conversion on 5 minutes. Annan struggled to get any good possession early on, and this allowed the visitors to assert their authority on the game. 2 more touchdowns on 25 mins and 38 mins saw the score at halftime 21 nil to the visitors.

Some stern words from coach Hamilton and a few changes in manpower at half-time were welcomed.

The visitors pressured from the restart and were rewarded with a bonus-point try 4 mins in.

This was to spur Annan into action and a beautiful individual try from Bradley James and a lovely wide move putting Aaron Carmichael under the posts was to give the supporters something to cheer about.

A well worked first phase try from Ben Latimer was to shake the visitors as Annan were taking control of the game. 2 penalties were to cost Annan dearly as the streetwise older heads of Carrick took the sting out of the home attack.

Pressure on the Blues was to pay dividend with a timely intercept try by James Kirby and converted by Josh Whiteside, his forth of the day was to bring things close until another converted penalty took the game out of reach.

Carrick controlled the ball for the last minutes before kicking the ball out to end the game.

Mention to Zak Stevenson, who played valiantly throughout, and with solid games from Frazer Hope, Ryan Armstrong and Josh Whiteside, there is plenty of positives to take from today as well as plenty to work on.

Special mention to Braden Sycamore making his debut today and sang beautifully in the beer tent post-match.

Starting XV:  1.⁠ ⁠Sean Armstrong 2.⁠ ⁠Kieran Warrick  3.⁠ ⁠Ryan Glass (C) 4.⁠ ⁠Frazer Hope 5.⁠ ⁠Hayden Hodgson 6.⁠ ⁠Eben Le Vin 7.⁠ ⁠Stewart Livingston 8.⁠ ⁠Rohan Cother 9.⁠ ⁠Zak Stevenson 10.⁠ ⁠Josh Whiteside 11.⁠ ⁠Lex Stevenson 12.⁠ ⁠James Kirby 13.⁠ ⁠Johnny Callaghan 14.⁠ ⁠Bradley James 15.⁠ ⁠Aaron Carmichael

Subs (all used): 16.⁠ ⁠Ryan Armstrong 17.⁠ ⁠Callum Taylor 18.⁠ ⁠Oban Nicholson 19.⁠ ⁠Mason Watret 20.⁠ ⁠Max Thorburn 21.⁠ ⁠Braden Sycamore 22.⁠ ⁠Ben Latimer