RUGBY REVIEW: Carrick go top with derby win over Larne

The celebrations were somewhat muted though, as right at the end hooker Richard Higgins, who had put his body on the line all afternoon, suffered what appears to be a season-ending fracture to his ankle.

Larne started strongly and the visitors were fortunate not to go behind in the first minute after conceding a penalty virtually from the kick-off.

The Larne attempt at goal went wide in the windy conditions as did a Carrick attempt five minutes later.

Larne missed with another penalty attempt after 10 minutes. After this, Carrick began to gain territorial control and Luke Whittal was unfortunate when another penalty attempt came back off the post. However, the Larne clearance gave Carrick a line-out just outside the 22 and a strong charge from Ryan McGonigle ended with another penalty to the visitors at the break-down; this time Whittal was successful to give Carrick a 3-0 lead.

Carrick pressure told again in the 35th minute when Conor Cambridge made a break from the back of a scrum and fed centre Reece Hamilton who raced in from 30 metres out. Whittal added the conversion points to give Carrick a 10 points to nil lead which they held until half-time, with Larne missing with another penalty kick as the half ended.

In the second half Peter Simpson put in an excellent grubber kick which allowed Aaron McKinney to beat the Larne defence to the ball for an uncoverted touchdown.

The visitors had one fright when a quick pass from the Larne scrum-half appeared to have let his left winger in on the blind-side of a scrum but the pass was ruled forward.

When Higgins went down with a serious injury the referee blew for time with a few minutes remaining.