Garnock Match Report: a losing BP but little else…
by Webmaster
With little to play for in terms of league position, this match down in Beith always promised to be the “nadir” of our season, but hope springs eternal and 3 men, 2 ladies, 2 dogs + 1 Beaver tramped down to Lochshore in freezing conditions to see if the boys in the 1st XV could continue their recent run of positive form.

In the absence of a number of our regulars, it was good to see young Bobby Beattie promoted to the captaincy and this bold move promised much to the scarce visiting support, huddling against the rain as Garnock prepared to kick-off. But that optimism turn out to be badly misplaced as, with barely 2 minutes on the clock, Garnock took the lead with a try and conversion: 7 - 0. I’d talk you through it but it was horrible and I’d rather watch an episode of Kirstie Allsop’s “Homemade Home” than relive those moments again.

From the re-start however, Accies recognised they’d actually travelled down to Ayrshire (?) to play a match, and a bit of spark returned with a number of phases setting up good field possession. Tempo returned to our play and Andy Brown made progress into the Garnock 22. Over-exuberant rucking from the Garnock pack led to a penalty on 7 minutes and Jonny T obligingly slotted our first points: 7 - 3.

The rest of the first quarter was played between the 22’s and primarily between the forwards who trundled backwards and forwards as if they were auditioning for a mock battle on CBBC. With the ref positively pleading with both sets to “travel through the gate” at the breakdown, the attritional tone seemed tone seemed to be set for what promised to be a very long and increasingly cold afternoon but then, as if from nowhere, a beautifully controlled 30m drive from the Accies pack took the boys inches from the try-line.

Again, I’d like to describe what happened next but the rain was falling so hard at this point that my notes became illegible - ink on the pad flowed everywhere! But your scribe’s assistant assures you all that from the resultant breakdown, the ball was spread wide (and not dropped), and ultimately Flight Lt. Adam Taylor managed to hold on to a pop pass to “splash” over for our first try. The conversion from Jonny T duly followed and at 7 - 10 things were looking distinctly up.

From the restart too, a speculative return kick from Ben Semple was guddled by Garnock’s full-back and pressure from that man Brown gave us field position. Further pressure put us within striking distance and Garnock seemed to be giving away penalties like favours at a wedding. And with the gift of another such little trinket on their 22, Jonny T proved to be more awake than most, taking a quick tap and spinning the ball wide to his backs. A lovely half break by Bobby gave Seato an inch of space and he duly squeaked through and over for our second. With the conversion to follow from Jonny T to make it 7 - 17 and with half-time looming, you can guess what happened next can’t you - yes, shortly after the restart we gave away a penalty for crossing and gifted Garnock 3 points from virtually in front of the posts: 10 - 17 then and, from the restart, just when we should have moved on and really put the game to bed, the momentum seemed to swing against us.

In fairness to the ref who’d been warning both teams for 35 minutes to “roll away” in the tackle, it seemed certain that the next “appropriate” infringement from either side was going to result in a card and so it turned out: it just so happened that we made the next tackle!

Having made a great “standing” hit on his opposite man, young Gus MacCallum was clattered by a bunch of forwards piling in behind him and got nailed to the floor as a result. The ref clearly took this as willful disobedience of his earlier exhortations and to the vociferous delight of the home crowd brandished a yellow card. Gus can feel a little hard done too - where on earth was he supposed to roll away to with a dozen or so grown men lying all over him this scribe will never know, but there you have it: one man’s “not releasing” is another man’s “not rolling away”.

And so, with 14 men and hypothermia promising to set about both teams, the second half kicked off. Clearly Garnock know their home pitch and conditions well and each time their 10 got the ball he promptly hoofed it down the park. Unattractive rugby? Yes, but effective nonetheless and they recognised too that with a numerical advantage in the midfield, if they had field position, they could exploit it. Yet another penalty was given away by Accies for not rolling away: 13 - 17 and further pressure was to come.

Another penalty at the scrum for some front-row shenanigans gave Garnock further territorial advantage and though some sterling work by the forwards saw us win the turn-over and clear our line, it proved to be only a temporary respite. The subsequent line-out was lost through a call miscommunication and Garnock set up a ruck. Peeling off the back of it, they piled down the 10 channel and secured the score to make it 18 - 17. And with the conversion following making it 20 - 17, you’d have thought it was Accies that were at the foot of the table with just 2 wins in 14 this season.

Little of note happened for the rest of the third quarter. Now, don’t get this scribe wrong - there was plenty of earnest endeavour from both sides - we did try to play a bit but then made mistakes which then gave the Garnock 10 the opportunity to promptly boot the ball back down the park again. It was all just a bit “predictable”. Garnock had one promising break but Ben Semple superbly hauled his man down - taking a bang on the head in the process which necessitated him leaving the field - but there was little else to shout about for either sets of supporters.

A shocking lack of subs - where was everybody? - put us under pressure as the Garnock coach cleverly rotated theirs as if they were on a fairground carousel. Undoubtedly this gave the home side an advantage and, with field position, they promptly kicked a penalty at the start of the 4th quarter for an infringement again at the breakdown to make it 23 - 17.

And so it remained. Accies did exert some serious pressure in the last 10 minutes and threatened a couple of time to cross the white wash for a barely deserved win, but it was not to be. Garnock, under heavy pressure in the closing 5 and urged on by their bench, somewhat surprisingly then seemed to suffer a curious bout of “fall-down-itis” with their players suffering all sorts of maladies. It would be churlish to suggest that this was just gamesmanship at the end of their “must-win” fixture considering all the subs they had at their disposal, but it did look fairly ridiculous to any non-partisan spectator with 4 Garnock players down at one point with “cramp”!

The Bottom Line? Did we deserve to win? Probably not on today’s performance. Garnock were fighting and scrapping for their lives today and we failed to recognise that. In truth we were possibly a bit naive in trying to play “our rugby” instead of the conditions and the pitch, and that probably was our undoing. On the day, Garnock were “smarter” than us and well done to them for that. Having now inched their way off the foot of the table, just maybe their salvation is in sight.

Final score: 23 - 17.

This article was originally posted on 17-Mar-2013, 10:16 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 17-Mar-2013, 10:27.