Irvine 18 Glasgow Accies 7


It is sometimes said that the old clichés are the best clichés. A game of two half’s, well, not quite a game of 45 minutes and 35 minutes not quite either because the second half was short changed by about 5 minutes as there was no injury time played.

It was all Irvine in the first period as they dominated possession against an Accies pack that played as if they had never met each other before. The lineout was a shambles and four heels against the head in succession did nothing for the confidence.

The Irvine team were really fired up and why not. A victory and they were promoted and the added incentive of an extra £10,000 from their sponsor if they won the match.

Oh how Accies could do with a benefactor like that.

The home side simply tore into an Accies side that were handicapped by players calling off before the season is ended. When will our players sort their diaries out? The season start on September 1 and finishes on March 31.

The other handicaps were the loss of centre Dougie Horner after 12 minutes and hooker Matteo Giovanazzi, with a nasty kick on the back of the head, shortly thereafter. Both players were able to resume after halftime.

The other major factor was the number of penalties awarded in the match, 33, and the writer may have missed a few. Accies received 20 the opposition 13 and there could have been one at every breakdown as the Irvine players simply dived into the rucks like penguins going into the water. A couple of early yellow cards for persistent offence would have sorted out the root cause.

The Irvine pressure told as they kicked two penalties in the 11th and 18th minutes to go 6-0 up.

For the rest of the half Accies defended fairly well with the exception of a five metre lineout near their line where they were caught off guard and Irvine scored in the corner from a clever move. The touchline conversion was good and at half time the home side lead by 13-0.

With a strong wind behind them in the second half this looked quite promising. However disaster struck early on in the second half. An Irvine player was tackled just outside Accies 22 and with the whole of the Accies support screaming that he was holding on the referee awarded a scrum to Irvine. The South African no8, the best player on the field, picked up and fed the wing that was over in the corner before the Accies defence realised what was happening. The conversion was missed but Irvine were now almost out of sight even if this was to be their last real attack of the match.

At last Accies started to win ball and release their backs. In particular Dougie Horner and Jamie Doig looked dangerous every time they had possession. Accies battered away at the defence but a combination of exceptionally good tackling and an ability to lose the ball at vital moments proved to be their downfall. Their luck was also out when Ali McLaren struck the post with a long distance penalty.

10 minutes from the end they finally scored with a well-worked try. Jamie Doig made a clean break and his well-timed pass gave Craig Wright room to squeeze over in the corner. Ali McLaren landed a splendid conversion to close the scoring.

There is little doubt that Irvine deserves their promotion as over the season they have only lost 3 games, twice to Morgan and a surprise defeat by Garnock.

It is interesting to note that the two promoted sides had the highest number of foreign players in their team and hopefully Irvine will not use their bonus to trawl the Commonwealth and the EEC to fill the spaces left by those that are returning at the end of this season.

This brings to an end a season where Accies have replaced 50% of their side with fairly inexperienced players who have improved as the season progressed and therefore a 5th place finish is not too bad.

However there is still much work to be done over the summer and that coupled with an infusion of players hopefully coming back to the Club the season ahead can be anticipated with some hope. The Club need to move out of the comfort zone and therefore promotion must be the target the target. To achieve this there needs to be hard work off and on the field and the planning must start now.

This article was originally posted on 26-Mar-2006, 12:25 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 26-Mar-2006, 19:49.