Glasgow Accies 12 Highland 8

A win is a win, but Accies cannot take much satisfaction from this scrappy performance.
On the 5th good Saturday in a row, played on a perfect surface with a gentle breeze and warm sunshine there was little excuse for this disappointing performance.
Highland minus a number of regulars and all their Fijians gave Accies a difficult afternoon and could consider themselves a little unlucky to go home with only a losing bonus point.
Far to often for comfort Accies lost the ball in contact or were penalised for not releasing because there was no support for the tackled player.
To be fair Accies defence was solid throughout the game and the lineout was highly effective. Mike Henry improves with every game and his lineout work on his own throw, disrupting the oppositions and support in the loose made him this correspondents man of the match.
Accies backs must also take their share of the blame for this stuttering performance. They had a great deal of the ball but had great difficulty in spreading it wide to their speedy wings. To often they cut back into the traffic. Having said that Jonny Adams and Alan Wilson each had one clean break.
In the 35th minute the Jonny Adams break from deep inside his own half lead to a spectacular but somewhat fortuitous try. He surged over the halfway line and kicked ahead. A vicious bounce eluded the fullback and came back into the hands of Mike Hermes. He offloaded to Adams and he scored under the posts for Greame Simpson to convert for a 7-0 lead.
Accies lost the ball from the kick off and were penalised for not releasing. Highland kicked the goal and the half ended with Accies in the lead by 7-3.
During the first quarter of the second half the game seesawed without either side gaining an important advantage.
As the game entered the closing quarter, at last, Accies managed to work the ball along the line and Mike Hermes squeezed through the narrowest of gaps for the decisive try.
At this stage Accies let Highland back into the game mainly through the number of penalties that they conceded some of which needed further explanation from the referee at the end of the match. Apparently if you break away from a rolling maul that is deemed to have been obstruction. That surely needs to be re-examined.
Whatever, Highland started to play their best rugby of the match and some excellent handling lead to a good try in the corner that narrowed the lead to 12-8.
The final 10 minutes proved to be fairly scary for Accies as Highland pressed for a winner.
Accies now have 14 league points accumulated from 3 wins in a row but they will need to much tighter and more game aware if they are going to topple Garnock next week

This article was posted on 24-Sep-2006, 10:37 by Hugh Barrow.