Carrick captain Michael Kirk was full of praise for the battling qualities his side have shown this season after they came from behind to emphatically win the BT Shield on Saturday.

Having won the event in 2015/16, Carrick went into the match against Murrayfield Wanderers as slight favourites at BT Murrayfield.

However, it was the Edinburgh side who led 21-10 in this one just as half-time approached.

Carrick grabbed a crucial converted try just before the interval and they seemed to take a lot of confidence from that, dominating the second period to defend their title with a 41-28 victory.

Back-row Kirk said: “I think we were just a bit shaky in the opening 30 minutes or so, we lost our stand-off Kyle Johnson due to injury and that re-jig in the backline took time to sort out.

“The try before half-time really helped us and at the break myself and head coach Gordon Brown just tried to tell the guys to calm down, play the rugby we know we can and the tries would come.

“Thankfully they did and this journey we are on at Carrick at the moment is very exciting with the majority of the team coming from the local area.”

Kirk’s coach Brown added: “This group of players are very resilient and rugby in south Ayrshire is really on the up at the moment and it is great to be part of.”

Wanderers skipper Murray Hastie said: “We gave it everything in this match, but Carrick just had too much for us in the end and full credit to them.”

A Liam Hanlin try put Wanderers 7-0 up, but a penalty from Kyle Johnson and then a converted try by Greg Montgomery made it 10-7 to Carrick.

As mentioned it was 21-17 to Wanderers at half-time, but Ross McCulloch and John Fulton scored and Carrick were 29-21 up.

Lewis Clark and then Montgomery went over to make it 41-21 before a late Wanderers consolation.

Ali Bain was the hero for Portobello in the BT Bowl final, his 31st, 32nd and 33rd tries of the season seeing them lift the trophy.

Blairgowrie, cheered on by a cracking travelling support, fought back to 17-15 down early on in the second half against the Edinburgh men.

However, Portobello just had too much firepower in their impressive backline and they came out on top 33-23 to keep the trophy in the capital.