Falkirk 58 Glasgow Accies 0
Scottish Cup 3rd Round

Saturday 9th December 2006

At Falkirk


An Accies side crippled by call offs in the back division were simply swamped by a competent Falkirk side with a speedy back division. Accies could not cope with the pace of the two wingers and the New Zealanders at scrum half and full back.

Already minus Mike Hermes, Jonny Adams, Jamie Doig, they were further handicapped when captain and full back Ross Chassels pulled a hamstring in the warm up and had to be replaced by young Max Henderson.

To be fair to Max he played well and put in some superb tackles before he had to leave the field injured and be replaced in the backs by forward Graeme Simpson.

Accies started badly by conceding five penalties in a row that gave Falkirk huge territorial advantage and they scored four tries in the first half, three breakaways and a five-metre lineout drive that Accies could not hold.

Strangely enough after the fifth penalty conceded Accies were awarded fifteen penalties in a row, virtually all for similar offences at the breakdown. The referee, who otherwise had a good game, should have produced several yellow cards to put a stop to this practice of killing the ball.

During the first half the Accies pack produced a lot of good possession but it foundered on resolute defence and an inability to penetrate.

With the elements in their favour in the second half there was still hope but it was quickly dashed by a sharp break from the base of the scrum by the Kiwi scrum half and a feed to ex Stirling County flanker Bob Wyllie to score under the posts and kill off the game as a contest. At this stage Max Henderson left the field and Brad Wirth dropped back to full back. This caused further disruption in the back division and four of the tries that followed were caused by turnovers and missed tackles as Accies desperately tried to chase the game. The final try was an interception caused by the same reason.

This was a quite different Falkirk side to the one that Accies played earlier in the season. In the first game they tried to keep it tight and overpower Accies with the strength of their experienced pack. In this game they were prepared to run the ball wide at every opportunity and so they played much more attractive rugby. If they continue to play in this style very few Premier sides will relish a visit to Falkirk in the next round.

If Accies had a man of the match it has to be one of the forwards and there are a few possibilities but it has to go to Scott Thorburn the prop who romped about the field all afternoon to good effect.

The next game is on Saturday against Duns at New Anniesland after that there is a two-week gap in which it is hoped that Accies can get all the missing players back fully fit.

Accies will now play in the Bowl competition and can only hope that they will get a home tie for the first time in ages

This article was originally posted on 10-Dec-2006, 09:19 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 10-Dec-2006, 09:49.