Glasgow Accies 13 v Howe of Fife 20

Venue: New Anniesland



“Accies let victory slip away”



On a sunny, dry winters day Accies started brightly against a Howe of Fife side sitting just above them in the league.

Clearly up for the game, Accies’ early pressure kept Howe on the back foot. Howe’s response was to take the physical approach to rugby with a number of late and high tackles in order to put Accies off their stride and using the rolling maul to retain possession.

Accies were not in a mood to be bullied and the first score came from Accies, having won a lineout they moved the ball wide, with good support from the Accies forwards clean fast ball was generated and Jamie Doig found space on the blindside stepping inside and out to dive over for the opening try. 5 – 0

Accies continued to pressurise Howe but following a blatant knock on, Howe were allowed to carry on up the field and moments later a scrambling Accies defence conceded a penalty. Kicking for field position and using their forwards Howe put enormous pressure on Accies through a series of driving rucks and mauls. Accies defence held firm but eventually concede a penalty which enabled Howe to open their account.

Not deterred, Accies strike back immediately from the re-start driving hard at Howe. Accies second try came courtesy of a super backline move from Accies through the hands to Craig Wright who skipped round his opposite man and popped the pass inside to the supporting Gareth Williams to score in the right hand corner and Accies looking in total control. 10 – 3

With 5 minutes to go to half time Craig Clark was sin binned following an incident where the Howe prop clearly threw a punch in front of the referee, how the referee did not sin bin both players is something of a mystery. This gave Howe an opportunity to strike back at Accies whilst having an extra man advantage. Howe won a penalty and kicked to reduce the gap to 10 – 6.

Again following the re-start Accies drive forward at Howe and with the last move of the first half come within inches of scoring a third try. Following a poor clearance kick Accies backs, with some terrific support running and passing out of the tackle, clear space for Gareth Williams to run for the line, however a heroic defensive cover tackle stops him just short of the line and the chance was lost as the half time whistle blew.

Half Time: Accies 10 – Howe of Fife 6

The first half, clearly dominated by Accies, was to be the high point as almost immediately from the start of the second half Howe win a penalty and close the gap to 10 – 9.

Slowly but surely Howe began to take control of the game through their streetwise pack of forwards and kick another penalty to take the lead for the first time in the match. Accies begin to struggle to cope and don’t seem to be able to maintain the pressure and intensity of their first half display which gave Howe so many problems. They do re-gain the lead from a penalty for a final time but the balance of the game had clearly changed and Accies had lost control. 13 – 12 to Accies

Howe, sensing that Accies were not putting them under anywhere near as much pressure began to take control and following a further penalty to re-take the lead 13 – 15 went hunting for a try that would seal the game. With 9 minutes to go relentless pressure from Howe resulted in a try in the right hand corner as following a series of rucks and quick tap penalties Accies ran out of defenders for the final score of the game. 13 – 20

There was still time for Accies to respond and although there was much effort and endeavour Accies didn’t create any clear cut chances to draw level and had to be content with a losing bonus point following a game that they had dominated in the first half but let slip away from them in the second half.

There is much for Coaches Wintle & Afuakwah to think about as this is not the first time Accies have let slip winning positions this season and both coaching team and players need to work together to deliver a solution to this habit of letting winning positions slip from their grasp. They do however have time as the next game is in two weeks time at Kilmarnock.



Regards,



Stephen

This article was posted on 18-Feb-2007, 22:31 by Hugh Barrow.