Kelvinside Academy reports


Kelvinside Academy v High School of Glasgow
27-20

The weather was only going to get worse as HSOG kicked off on Saturday. The initial skirmishes were highlighted by a tremendous tackle from Oscar Welsh but the rest of the team looked as though they hadn’t played for almost 4 weeks. It was no surprise when High School scored the 1st try after sloppy midfield tackling after 6 minutes and this was doubled after 10 minutes. An attempt by KA to run the ball out of the 22 with a lack of support allowed a turnover and a heavy defeat was looming.

Dropped passes, poor kicking and ineffective tackling gave High School the opportunity to build on their lead but fortunately they began to make similar mistakes.

Rugby is essentially a team game but the introduction of the talismanic Cummings on the 20 minute mark was to prove pivotal. It was he who took a quick tap on the 22, made inroads and offloaded to Andrew Davidson who powered over close to the posts – conversion made by Fraser Waddell.

KA certainly improved for the remainder of the half, despite the weight of the HSOG forwards which was causing some scrum pressure. Inexplicably the High School scrum half started to feed his scrum despite his hooker giving an outstanding technical display of hooking and on the 3rd offence a penalty was awarded which Waddell stroked over.

Half time 10-10

The halftime ‘chat’ from Messrs Wilson and Craig (mainly Wilson!) centred around improved performance from the pack and after 6 minutes a clever lineout steal from Andrew Davidson led to a great offload again from Cummings in midfield and Michael McDonagh slid in wide out. With the wind gusting, the rain lashing down and from wide out on the touchline, Fraser Waddell nonchalantly stroked the ball over. 17-10

Barely 3 minutes later, a turnover of High School ball on the 10 metre line and crisp handling allowed McDonagh to double his tally, and the easier conversion was added yet again by Waddell. 24-10

The riposte was immediate from HSOG and a try was scored out wide after successive forward drives – conversion missed 24-15

HSOG then had the majority of possession and position for the next 10 minutes but stiffer defence from KA and the occasional error kept the scoreboard still. Kelvinside then gave away a string of ruck offence penalties and on 27 minutes Captain Cummings exhausted the ref’s patience with one too many even although it had been Robbie Dempster who had transgressed the 3 times previously. Yellow card! High School sensed victory and battered away at KA but the true character of this side showed and tackles were made and bodies were put on the line in defence of the line. Eventually though numbers told and High School scored their 4th try but the crucial conversion was missed.

Cummings unexpectedly returned to the fray and with renewed vigour KA forced another penalty which was put over by Waddell – 27-20

Despite the 2nd half lasting 42 minutes KA held out for a hard fought win. Credit to HSOG who contributed to a fine rugby match given the weather conditions. They will not play many games this season where they play so well but end up losing.

All the Kelvinside players contributed to a fine win and a busy 2 weeks lays ahead.

Special note: given the poor weather and the closeness of the game, mention must be made of Fraser Waddell’s fine kicking performance which proved, ultimately, to be the difference between the 2 sides.

“POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT X THE POWER OF A UNITED SQUAD = WINNING FORMULA” – GORDON TJIETJENS, NZ 7’S COACH

Ali Craig
Rugby Coach

This article was posted on 4-Nov-2013, 13:45 by Hugh Barrow.