New post on Glasgow Accies Rugby Club


Accies 11, EK 20
by Webmaster
New Anniesland in early autumn. Is there a better place to place our beloved game?

The pitch? Perfect. Sun shining. Gentle breeze flowing from over the Clubhouse, and we all seemed ready to "rock 'n' roll"! Two early penalties just after kick-off gave us field position and, very nearly, the first score though "schoolboy" passing and knock-on's in the backs resulted in naught. But the errors came from both sides and, after a bit more early pressure, a penalty was gained which Seato duly slotted over : 3 - 0 then after 10 mins. And he built upon this with another well taken place kick a few minutes later. 6 - 0 and, if we were all being honest, Accies looked as if they were ready to move on to a bonus point score.

But EK played to their obvious strengths, bullying the line-out and stealing off-the-top to set up a number of rolling mauls which put us on the back foot. Thankfully, handling in their back division wasn't quite as slick as their coaches would have wished and a couple of opportunities were "butchered". But the award of a quite "mysterious" penalty against Beaver gave the EK kicker the chance, against the breeze and the run of play, to take a long range opportunity. This he duly took and, all of sudden, we weren't looking quite so comfortable at 6 - 3.

Touchline unease only increased on the half-hour mark when a further penalty for "sealing-off" gave EK the opportunity to level the scores and their kicker duly obliged. 6 all then but then but rest of the first half belonged to us and, with momentum gathering, Gav Paul came spectacularly close to his first try for the Club with a rumbustious run through 2 tackles. The EK cover defence however dislodged the ball from his grasp and the resultant scrum saw their 9 clear to touch. And though half-time fast was fast approaching we seemed to be in no mood to give up field position, we secured the line-out just outside the 22m line, only for EK to somewhat cynically come in from the wrong side of the resultant ruck. Seato's effort from the subsequent penalty fell just wide but by then the half-time whistle had blown.

6:6 then come the restart, and whilst the scoreline didn't exactly reflect all the play to that point in the match (we were better on balance), we kicked it out from the off - an omen of things to come? EK took full advantage to gain field position and, indeed, gained an unexpected penalty. The kick at goal was missed and, if we're again being honest, we were let off the hook by EK's failure to apply any real subsequent pressure and we managed, after a great break by hooker Ker Malcolm to scramble back field position back into the EK 22. Fabio then got a yellow card for reasons this scribe's still not sure about, and Rooster came on as his front row replacement in a 7 man scrum which was always going to be under subsequent pressure.

But - surprise, surprise, and this "7 v 8" handicap notwithstanding - Beaver managed on 50 minutes to "dig-one" out of the back of a scrum despite it retreating rapidly and off-loaded to Ben who choose the blind-side, off-loaded to Ross, who after beating 2 men, went in for our one and only score of the afternoon. Though the conversion was missed, confidence was rising in the Accies ranks and this was only bolstered when EK receiving a yellow card for a half-hearted punch thrown at Beaver. Sure, our talismanic forward forward might have made the most of this specific event, and although the EK support howled in derision, if you throw a punch in front of a ref - take your punishment!

Further EK indiscipline saw them marched back up the park and, for a while, it seemed as if things might get quite ugly: fists flew, nasty names were called and handbags were thrown. A few minutes of midfield "huffing and puffing" from both sides then followed, as both teams sought to break the dead-lock as we entered the 4th quarter. But it was truly "eeksi-peaksi".

And then EK only went and scored, didn't they! And, in fairness, it was a good one. For the first time in the afternoon, their midfield duo beat ours, ran up the field, their 13 beat 2 tackles, then had the presence of mind to off-load when he knew he wasn't going to beat the third - the supporting player took the pass and over he popped: and though the conversion was missed it was now 11 - 13 and everything was to play for in the final period.

Sadly, we came second best in the last quarter - and that turned out to be the one that counted! EK came straight back at us, their tails up, and in truth, we didn't have enough composure to match them. A mistake following a kick-through saw us spill the ball in our own 22, their back row pounced and recycled the ball only to then off-load to a second row who, "loitering-with-intent", splashed over from 5m.

With the conversion nailed, and at 11 - 20, there was too little time left on the clock to haul back the deficit and the game was all but over. Ironically, a couple of free-flowing moves in the dying minutes saw us in EK territory, seriously threatening the opposition line. But it was all too little to late. 11 pts - 20 pts then come the final whistle.

Next week we're back at home, to take on Annan (k/o 3pm). Let's take stock of what happened today boys: we better than that. Yes, we're a young side but that's an excuse that will only go so far and it's one this scribe's fed up hearing. Yes, we're capable of a lot more than we showed today: so let's start showing it!

MOTM: for us at least, Ross Cowan at 15. Secure under the high ball, carried well, broke tackles and took his try well.

Ref Watch: by and large, a good performance from todays ref, despite all the howls of derision from both sets of supporters on the touchline throughout the 80 mins. Managed the game well, particularly when it threatened to "blow-up" mid-second half, and generally let things flow. Didn't know we'd started to award "5 minute" yellow cards though - must have missed that Murrayfield meeting.

This article was originally posted on 12-Oct-2013, 21:25 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 12-Oct-2013, 23:58.