Glasgow Accies 2ndXV 22 GHK 2ndXV 0

Saturday 21st October 2006

New Anniesland

With renewed enthusiasm about the 2ndXV, principally as a result of Nigel Campbell’s input over the past few weeks, the team that took the field on Saturday afternoon were confident of a win and of playing some good rugby in the process. With almost all of the 1stXV back & fit, and with competition for places rife, the 2ndXV had the benefit of the services of Garth Williams, playing his first full game since breaking his hand, and Scott Hazley – both of whom played a large part in the victory recorded.

However that should not take away from the hard graft put in by the entire team who, under Coach Campbell’s vision, are starting to play some very attractive rugby. Credit too must go to GHK who came with the intention of playing the same brand of open, running rugby – we look forward to the return fixture in the New Year. Unfortunately in this league there are too few teams who share the same philosophy…and try to grind results out with ageing, heavy packs.

To the action….

Accies kicked off on the upper school pitches with a slight drizzle, which one would have though would have prevented the ball being moved around. As both teams tried to get the measure of each other, GHK put some good passages of play together and were looking like the team who would be first to score.

Unfortunately, after only a couple minutes of play, Callum Robb, the 2ndXV’s answer to Andy Jackson, found himself at the bottom of a pile up and as a result twisted his ankle badly. Chris Dunn came off the bench into the front row, allowing Dave Whitmore to move to the second row. Richard Lloyd moved back to his more regular position on the flank alongside newcomer Graeme Kerr who, despite being the smallest player in the squad, definitely punches well above his weight and is a welcome asset to the 2ndXV squad. Indeed I believe that Graeme, with all of his harrying around the opposition half-backs, earned the Man of the Match award.

However GHK started to put some good passages of play together, using their bulky inside centre as the focus of their first phase attack. Their forwards made the hard yards, before the home defence gave a way a penalty just outside their own twenty-two. They elected to kick, but the effort drifted just wide of the posts & Captain Henderson cleared to touch.

This was the wake-up call the guys needed, and in particular the forwards stepped up a gear. For the first time this season, they hit & cleared out rucks giving Richard Taylor good clean ball & plenty of time to release the backs with his crisp passing. With Gareth Williams calling the shots at 10, the backs ran through their entire repertoire, using the size of Jamie Williamson coming in from the blind side to good effect. The next 20mins or so was played in the opposition’s half…and after a series of good moves GHK gave a way a penalty which, having failed to break down the home defence, Accies elected to kick & the attempt drifted just wide of the posts.

From the drop out, Accies went back on the attack & eventually Gareth Williams burst through a gap in the defence & headed for the try line. The chasing defender tried to catch him, however his challenge just a yard short of the try line was both desperate & illegal…hence the penalty try was awarded, which Dave Miller converted.

The half-time whistle blew shortly afterwards….7 – 0 to Accies.

The home team started the second half where they had left off, running everything out of defence and the forwards hitting the rucks at pace, with Dave Whitemore & Dave McLouchlan leading the charge. However a solid GHK defence held firm, and all Accies took from the opening 20mins was a converted penalty.

It was in the final 20minutes of the game that Accies wrapped up the game, with firstly Richard Lloyd barrelling over from a close ruck, and finally Scott Hazley who scorched down the right wing after some great handling to score a well deserved try after his hard work and strong running all day. The latter was converted making the score 22 – 0. GHK’s defence had started to tire and in the closing minutes, Accies continued to attack at every opportunity, and the ref penalised GHK on a number of occasions for handling on the deck. However the scoreline remained the same, until the whistle blew a short time after.

GHK will feel hard done by as they played some good rugby and are far better than their league position would indicate. However, Accies deserved their win, and hopefully this will spur them on to next weeks game away to Strathendrick, who have put together some good results….and with one Dougie ‘Schmoo’ Spence threatening to be dropped from their 1stXV for the day it will be a tough game to win.

Thanks again to Nigel for all his work with the forwards on Thursday nights….what a difference it makes come match day.

This article was posted on 23-Oct-2006, 18:10 by Hugh Barrow.