Carrickfergus 33-Letterkenny 17

Letterkenny travelled to Carrickfergus to play a league fixture in cold but clear conditions on Saturday morning.

The game started with some sloppy defending from Letterkenny possibly due to the long long bus journey. A score was conceded soon after kick off after hard running Carrick forwards, and it seemed that Letterkenny were in for a long day.
Letterkenny reorganised their defence and some strong tackling by Finn Duffy, Conrad Voigt and Jack Bond started to put Carrickfergus under pressure. Carrickfergus continued their hard direct running and scored another try to make it 14–0 after 15 minutes.
The Carrickfergus backs kept attacking Letterkenny but strong tackling from Darcy Devanney on the wing held them at bay.
Letterkenny then started to attack through multiple phases and were awarded with a super try from Killian Boyle. Letterkenny soaked pressure from the restart and went on the attack again. Jack Robinson spotted an opening and scored a superb individual try.

Unfortunately slack defending allowed Carrickfergus to extend the lead soon after the restart and the penalty count started to mount. Letterkenny scored again with only 10 minutes to go with scrum half Cian Arenhold taking a quick penalty and scorching over for a fine opportunist try, but unfortunately the conversion was missed for a 19–17 scoreline (3 tries per team) . Despite lots more positive attacking play from the Letterenny lads, Carrickfergus scored two breakaway tries in the last 10 minutes for victory. The scoreline somewhat flattered the home team in a fairly even and well contested match. On another day, this could been a different result.
Best for Letterkenny were
Cillian Boyle,
Charlie Robinson
Darcey Devenney
Ronan Keeney
Finn Duffy
Zak Doherty
Conrad Voigt
Jack Bond

The other players also contributed really well including the subs who came on played with great energy.

For a first match, a long way from home, after a difficult week, this was no disgrace. This team has huge potential and with some regular training and a little more fitness should do very well this season. Coleraine at home next week will be a match to build on this promising performance.