Loch Lomond 0-17 GHK

GHK travelled the short distance to Bonhill on Saturday after a week of terrible weather to find the Loch Lomond pitch in perfect condition for the style of rugby that the Old Anniesland outfit like to play. GHK made a couple of changes to the team that defeated Clydebank the following week with Ryan Welsh and Scott Ferguson coming into the pack and David Ross replacing Cammy Little at flyhalf.

GHK had comfortably beaten the hosts in the reverse fixture earlier in the season and were hoping for a similar result but the game did not turn out the way the hopeful champions had planned. From the kick off, GHK had control of the ball and were using the extremely wide pitch to their advantage by setting away Andy McTavish and Rory Love away early but some good Loch Lomond cover tackling kept the scoreboard quiet. From a perfectly executed lineout on half way, Murray Souter made a break but was tackled just short. Gordy Reid picked and set up another ruck and as everyone was looking right, David Ross went left and passed long to McTavish who ran over his opposite man to score the opener, converted by Ross. The visitors must have thought that this was the start of the points haul but it was Lomond who raised their game. The home pack were getting around the pitch quicker and stealing a lot of GHK’s ball.

During some scrappy play, Olly Jones was looking dangerous along with his centre partner Souter but attacks broke down due to GHK mistakes. Souter was involved in the next move when Jones put him through a hole in midfield, Stuart Pollock picked from the base of the ruck and passed to Colin Donald but the defender who Pollock had drawn in had caught him, picked him up and speared him to the ground whilst the ball was 30 yards away. The referee saw the incident and stopped play immediately and issued a yellow card but what was more frustrating for the visitors was that Love was in the process of scoring the second try but play had to be brought back.

Some lazy play at the back allowed Lomond back into the game when they retrieved their own kick and their forwards camped on the GHK line but some outstanding defence stopped Lomond in their tracks. Ross gathered a stray kick and beat his man to find McTavish supporting, the big winger kicked ahead and the ball was heading for the corner and he gathered the ball to score right next to the flag, the Lomond touch judge deemed a foot out of the pitch and the try did not stand.

GHK attacked from the lineout and stole ball and it was moved wide to Love who once again skinned his man on the wing but his inside pass was slapped into touch by a Lomond player. A very large disagreement followed to which the ref sent another Lomond player to the sin bin. With the last play of the game, GHK lost their influential skipper Olly Jones to a very bad head injury whilst making a big hit on the GHK line. The tackled saved a try but forced Jones to hospital, which may see him out of action for several weeks. The half finished 0-7.

GHK brought on Ali Smeaton to replace Jones and also Murray Wiseman due to an injury to big second row Jamie MacKinnon. GHK had been trying to score with every move rather than play some structured rugby so that was the game plan for the second period. GHK had the majority of the ball in the second half but a combination of their own errors and some aggressive defence kept the score board with only one try on it. The game was becoming increasingly scrappy and very heated with numerous incidents having to be dealt with by the ref. GHK eventually scored another well worked try when Smeaton set up good ball in midfield, Ryan Welsh carried from the ruck and similar to the first try everyone was looking left but David Ross quickly went right and Rand found him with an excellent pass. Ross fired a nice pass to Love on the wing and the speedster made his defenders feel slow as he scored on the right hand side, the conversion was on target but landed just under the bar.

Lomond were then reduced to 14 for the remainder of the match when the Lomond no8 was shown a straight red card for another out of control incident.

Smeaton was causing trouble in midfield and linked well during a break with McKinven who fed Souter who was hauled down just short and the ball cleared to touch by Lomond but GHK were looking good for more tries. The third was not far from coming and when Fraser McKinven tidied up ball on the left hand side the ball was quickly moved wide by Rand, Ross and Souter to McTavish who rounded the defence on the right wing to score. Unfortunately whilst Ross was lining up the conversion, another altercation boiled over as the GHK players were returning to their half. From the resulting kick off another act of foul play occurred and instead of showing another card to Lomond the ref decided to blow for full time 8minutes early.

Unfortunately for GHK the ref had become confused with the score and thought GHK had scored four tries, thus blowing early had no bearing on the outcome of the game but GHK had only scored three tries and were in the ascendancy and their quest for the bonus point had been prematurely cut short. If this result has any bearing on where the league trophy rests over the summer then GHK can feel extremely hard done by. With Marr winning comfortably against Bishopton, GHK now sit 6points behind Marr but with two games in hand.

This Saturday sees a welcomed break from league action when GHK travel to Milngavie to play neighbours West of Scotland in the BT Shield. This fixture sees the resurrection of an old rivalry that dates back to the 1880’s but more recently the last game between the two clubs was in the early 1990’s. With many former Old Anniesland players no plying their trade at Burnbrae and a few current GHK players being formerly of West the match is sure to be a cracker. Kick off is 2pm at Burnbrae and GHK will welcome as many supporters as possible in trying to defeat a team 6 leagues above them in the Scottish Rugby mix.

GHK team: Hunter, Love, Souter, Jones, McTavish, Ross, Rand, Forbes, Reid, Welsh, MacKinnon, Ferguson, Donald, McKinven, Pollok, Stewart, Wiseman, Smeaton
GHK man of the match: Gillon Rand

This article was posted on 16-Jan-2006, 15:20 by Hugh Barrow.