From Accies scribe


Pre-season in Oban
by Webmaster
Well yesterday, 15 Accies, 2 coaches, 2 "hingers-on" and smattering of game supporters battled caravans and the tourist traffic on the notorious A82, and sped up to Oban to join-up with our friends at OL's Glencruitten ground for a pre-season friendly.

"Get to the point - what was the score?" I hear you cry. Well, I'm not going to tell you! Why? Because A) you should have been there to support the boys, and B) the score wasn't what was important about yesterday.

Yesterday was about gaining some game time for the lads, seeing if our new boys could continue their increasingly good performances on the training pitch under game conditions and giving our new coaching staff the opportunity to gauge current levels of fitness. And all-in-all, this scribe for one believes the outing was well worthwhile.

Playing 4 x 20 mins, there was no doubt that OL, last seasons RBS National Bowl winners ( a great achievement BTW guys), had the much better of the opening exchanges. In large part this was due to a pack that must surely rival the national XV in size if not quite in skill, but the Accies front 8 (the oldest of whom was just 23 years of age!) battled hard and gave as good as they got.

The second period saw Accies backs come much more into things and we got on top in this period, and further good play, if a little fortuitous at times, saw us dominate the 3rd. The final period was disrupted with an injury to our young, new (though extremely "game") prop, Chris Westerdown, and as a result we lost a bit of momentum, ending up sharing the honours in the 4th period.

In terms of play, we were a bit rusty at times: the set-piece worked / didn't work / worked in fits and starts throughout the afternoon, the backs passed the ball well at times but over-ran it too on quite a few occasions and they need to start to learn to communicate and "trust" each other: the scrum had great shape but we lacked weight against a pack the size of which I haven't seen in our division in the last 5 seasons, but the boys rucked quite simply as if their lives depended on it!

All in all, Coach Couper had to be pleased with progress that such a young and new squad is starting to show and the signs of us "coming together" are undoubtedly there. In the forwards, extremely positive performances from youngsters Kieran (now, this young lad really does "run like a stag and leap like a salmon" Accies!), Cal Dal ( a no.7 in every true sense of the term) and Gavin in the forwards gladdened this old man's heart, and "old-timer" Michael Walker was quite simply outstanding all over the park in each of the 4 periods. It was great to see Andy Smith too - travelling all the way down from Plockton just to stretch his legs with us - working so tirelessly. Hopefully he'll been back down to Uni in the not too distant future. In the backs, ably marshalled by Ginge at 9 I might add, young Ian Gillies started to come on to a game after he'd found his voice, Marine Brodie ran straight and hard as did Gus, and the mercurial talent that is Classic, when he learns when and how he should off-load a ball, promises to be a real threat this season. A special word too for Rooster - he actually shimmied / side-stepped the OL defence at one point from close range to splash over for a try!!! I'm not kidding!!!

So there you have it. And I bet you didn't recognise half of those names, did you! Accies is re-inventing itself under Coach Couper folks so why not get down and come see what's been going on? Better still, why not bring down a few mates too? The clubhouse has had even more money spent on it, and it's never looked better so there's another treat in store for you!

And finally, a word about our hosts, Oban Lorne, a truly welcoming and genuine "community" club, exhibiting everything that's good about our game both on and off the park - anyone from OL is welcome at New Anniesland anytime! Under Lady President Dee Bradbury they're making great progress and we look forward to watching them build on last seasons Bowl success in RBS West 2 in 13/14.

And finally, finally - I know you're wondering about our "title" photo - well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the art deco / 30's exterior of The Regent View Hotel situated on Oban's Corran Esplanade. Due to the outstanding generosity of owner (and OL member) Tommy, a good proportion of the boys were accommodated for an overnight stay as they "bonded" with an evening out amongst the flesh-pots and vice-dens of Scotland's Seafood Capital. (If you're in Oban, why not check it out? - http://www.bespokehotels.com/regenthotel .) And I'm absolutely delighted to report that though one of our flock did apparently get "engaged" to a local lovelie at 2 am the following morning, there are no police incidents or reports of criminal damage to the fabric of Oban's town centre that require the diplomatic skills of Chairman Campbell to deal with today! So, and in all, a good time was

This article was posted on 11-Aug-2013, 14:46 by Hugh Barrow.