Glasgow Accies 6 Garnock 6
Saturday 13th January 2007
New Anniesland

Accies dent Garnock’s Promotion Drive

For the second time this season Accies took valuable points from Garnock in their quest for promotion into National 1. In the earlier encounter at Lochshore Accies won a tight game by a narrow margin this time, in an even tighter game, Accies were able to hang on for an honourable draw. The game was played in horrendous condition of a gale force wind and driving rain. At the start the wind was gusting out of the South but as the game progressed it moved slightly into the South West.
Having witnessed last Saturday the sparkling contest between Hawks and Boroughmuir under the new rules, this was chalk from cheese. A dour forward struggle, dominated by the referee’s whistle, was a poor comparison. Was it the new laws that made the difference? Possibly for this game was destroyed as a spectacle by the rolling maul and the propensity of the forwards to dive over the ball to kill it. A couple of yellow cards early in the game against Garnock might have helped. Accies too soon learned that this was an effective way of stopping the opposition winning the ball and they were every bit as guilty as the game progressed.
There were few incidents in a turgid first half and to be fair it was not a day for champagne rugby.
Garnock were on top for the first 10 minutes and the Accies set scrum seemed to be under considerable pressure. Eventually Accies broke the stranglehold and were rewarded with a penalty chance 35 metres out. Jamie Doig narrowly missed and the opportunity lost.
Garnock pressed again and a fumble close to the line by an Accies back put them back under pressure. The kick to the corner was well defended and Accies escaped again. However Garnock soon regained the initiative and were rewarded for some enterprising play with a penalty that their stand off duly converted.
Accies quickly recovered from this set back and Jamie Doig converted a penalty, for a deliberate knock on, from 33 metres to level the scores. Little else happened in the remaining 10 minutes of the half as the forwards scrapped for what little good possession they could wrestle.
At half time the general impression was that Accies had failed to use the wind to their advantage. Any possession they gained was spoiled by slow delivery and the pressure put on their halfbacks.
Garnock made a positive start to the second half and within a minute were back in the lead by 3-6. Accies attempted to run the kick off back from their own 22 but lost possession leaving the Garnock stand off free to drop a controversial goal. Some say it was over and those behind the goals said it fell short. This correspondent could not comment as he was at the other end at the time. The referee said it was over and that is all that matters. However this was Garnock’s final score of the day despite almost constant pressure throughout the half.
It was not totally Garnock as Accies had flashes of attack on a number of occasions and during one of these Jamie Doig kicked a second penalty to bring the scores level.
At the end of the day it was probably a better result for Accies than Garnock, as they needed the points more than Accies. Probably the real winner was the New Anniesland pitch that stood up remarkably well considering the battering that it had taken from the rain during the week.
Accies could be proud of their defensive effort throughout the match, as they looked comfortable every time that Garnock tried to use their threequarters. If the new laws are implemented next season sides that try to stuff the ball up their shirts and over use the rolling maul will not be as successful as they are at present.
Looking at the negative side of Accies play they still have difficulty in spreading the ball wide quickly enough to give their powerful outside runners half a chance.
It was difficult to select a man of the match. The entire back row could have won it for their 80 minutes of endeavour but by a narrow margin it goes to hooker Colin Tennant for the number of tackles he put in especially in the second half.
Next week Accies are back to cup rugby with a Bowl match against Grangemouth from Division 1. This is a must win game to keep the season alive now that the chance of promotion has been lost.
Spectators please note that it is a 1-30pm kick off. Please come out in numbers to cheer the team on

This article was posted on 13-Jan-2007, 20:54 by Hugh Barrow.