Cooke Ladies
Cooke struggled to find any consistency during the first twenty minutes of this match despite scoring an early try through Cathy Craig. Carrick fought their way back up the pitch and Karen Law went over in the corner after a series of attacks from close in. Unfortunately Law was injured while scoring and took no further part in the game.
Cathy Craig gets Cooke’s first.
With their extra player Cooke quickly went back on the attack and , despite the vociferous support from the Carrick coaches, Laura Nichol went over for the first of her hat trick of tries.
Carrick had no answer and with Maxine McMorris, and Jessica Elliot adding tries either side of Nichol’s third and Cooke ran out comfortable winners 36 – 5.
More pictures here.
Full report below from Emma Lowe
As the Ulster based Rose Cup kicked off there was an air of remembrance; as Cooke captain Suzanne Fleming reminded the squad that they were playing in the memory of Rosie Stewart, a former Cooke, Ulster and International player who sadly passed away in 2003, at the young age of 33.
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. After the game Laura commented “I am awesome, I know this. I would like to think I inspire the younger generation of Lady Rugby players. I believe any young girls considering playing rugby should come and watch me play as I am so amazing. Thank you.” (Clearly very modest about her abilities)
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. But they’d got the win they wanted in honour of Roise Stewart and lets hope the next cup matches are equally as triumphant.
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