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Clydebank 10-27 GHK

GHK travelled along Dumbarton Rd to Clydebank to play their 3rd league game of the season with the usual changes to the squad that is now customary to the team and with the students slowly returning to Glasgow, this trend is bound to continue for the foreseeable future.

Clydebank usually play on a nice pitch and GHK have profited over the years using the width of the first xv pitch to their advantage but as the team turned up to Whitecrook, it looked as though GHK would be playing their usual brand of rugby on the much smaller 2nd xv pitch with the main pitch lying unused. To say that the 2nd XV pitch was smaller is somewhat of an understatement and with some GHK mini’s on the sideline watching, they too commented that this pitch would stifle their wide attacking play.

The referee agreed that the tactics of Clydebank were sound and if he had brought his ruler, he would have measured the field but he left it at home thus the game went ahead the Clydebank players strimming it just before kick off. GHK refused to deviate from the way they play rugby, you do not have to play on a big pitch to play with width. GHK opened their account from a 5m scrum when Nick Cram picked and went to barge his way over the line despite the fact that the blindside flanker had broken as the ball got fed into the scrum, Jaimie Millan converted.

GHK were playing some lovely rugby with the forwards interlinking with offloads and pick and go’s and the backs were stretching the home defence with Cammy Little and Andy McTavish making breaks. Winger John Shannon was next on the score sheet after a blindside move involving Gillon Rand who was controlling matters well at scrumhalf. Shannon skinned his opposite man to go over in the corner for GHK’s second try.

GHK then took their foot off the peddle and allowed the Bankies to come back into the game and with the ability to kick the ball the length of the pitch, any penalty was boomed into touch close to each try line. Clydebank scored a converted try in 30mins after a period of pressure that resulted in one of their more experienced forwards crashing over, converted by the scrumhalf. The same player then knocked over a penalty to take their total to 10 but that would be that player’s only ray of light of the game with Rand dominating him at the scrum and forcing numerous turnovers. Millan knocked over a penalty of his own to cancel out that effort and leave the halftime score 10-15 to GHK.

GHK needed to return to the form of the first 20mins where they were constantly moving the ball and creating opportunities but the first period of the second half was spoilt by handling errors and simple mistakes that just kept on allowing Clydebank to clear their lines and due to the size of the pitch, an average kick looked good as it travelled far up field. GHK finally got their act together in the last 20mins when again their fitness showed against their older opponents and Clydebank’s tactics were thrown in their face when Captain Olly Jones scored a try by coming straight down the middle of the pitch after an excellent lineout take by Robbie Clarke, returning from long term injury. The backs planned move had dummy runners in midfield and that allowed Jones to hit the ball at pace through the middle of the bankies defence and Jones rounded the fullback for a great individual score which was converted by Millan.

GHK’s defence was most impressive in the second period with Millan leading the way by making some bone crunching tackles which got the bankies supporters fired up and with their advice the referee gave a couple of needless penalties. If the player who is tackled falls to the floor on impact then how can a tackler wrap round his arm? GHK then wrapped up the bonus point from a sliced kick when Cammy Little took the ball at full pace for the second time in the game from a high ball, beat 3defenders and popped to Andy McTavish who went over on the wing for the 4th score.

The GHK’s coaches agreed with Clydebank’s pitch tactics as they would have done the same thing if playing a team of GHK’s quality but the coaches just hope they show the same respect to teams like Marr who also like to use the ball and play it wide. The result sees GHK top of National 4 with a 100% record but next Saturday sees Cumbernauld visit Balgray and GHK failed to gain a bonus point from the visitors last season so the Old Anniesland men know that this is a vital league game.

Kick off is 3pm and support, as always, is welcomed.

GHK Team: Little, Shannon, Jones, Criggie, McTavish, Millan, Rand, Cram, Mitchell, Donald, Clarke, Stewart, Welsh, Stewart, Lohar, McCombe, Carlin, Mcara,

GHK Man of the Match: Gillon Rand

This article was posted on 18-Sep-2006, 10:14 by Hugh Barrow.