Friday 9th March

Venue: New/Old Anniesland

The Dave Gilmore Memorial Trophy

Glasgow Accies 19 v GHK 5





On a cold blustery night with the wind driving eastwards down the pitch, the team that utilised the prevailing conditions best and took their chances would probably come out on top.

As I write this, so it proved to be. The Accies pack, missing Thorburn, Lusk, Henry, Mieklem & Cadwallader and fielding an 18 & 19 year old in the front row, were given a torrid time in the scrums for most of the game. However GHK were not really able to transfer the domination of the set scrum into domination of the game as a whole with Accies stealing a considerable amount of GHK lineout ball and Accies back line clearly ahead of their opponents in the departments of pace, handling and kicking.



The game opened brightly with both sides having a tilt with the ball in hand and in the early stages it was looking good for GHK with a strong looking scrum giving them a platform to put Accies under pressure, however what was also clear was that Accies backline via the prominent Jamie Doig could slice their way through the GHK back line and counter the pressure. Unfortunately for GHK, their pack, while powerful in the set scrum, simply gave away too many kickable penalties for basic infringements such as diving over the ball and coming round the side of the ruck and Accies’ kicking machine, Ali McLaren, took every opportunity given to him as Accies were 9 – 0 up after 30 mins without having created any real clear cut try scoring chances apart from a Jamie Doig break up the right hand side were he should have passed when a two on one chance opened up.

The crowd wanted to see tries and as half time loomed Accies stole a GHK lineout and the ball was passed out to Jamie Doig who drove at the heart of the GHK defence. From the ruck that followed Accies moved it up the left side and GHK ran out of defenders as Craig Wright ran in at the corner for the first try of the game which was converted from out on the touch line by Ali McLaren. 16 – 0 Half Time.



As mentioned earlier the wind helped Accies in the first half and the second half would be a big test playing into the wind. Early GHK pressure arrived via their strong scrum and a willingness to move the ball around and GHK were in a very good position, pinning Accies back in their own 22m for what seemed an age until GHK’s back line dropped the ball and Accies fly hacked the ball upfield to clear the danger. This was to be merely temporary relief for Accies as GHK, with the evergreen Cammy Little pulling the strings at stand off, began to put some phases of play together and really pressurise Accies. This pressure paid off following a series of rucks and mauls the GHK full back came into the line and quite rightly sailed around Accies prop Matt Franklin and in between Craig Wright and Brad Wirth to score in the top right hand corner.



The game then began to even out as the scrums settled down following a combination of GHK’s forwards beginning to tire and the changes Coach Afakwuah made in the pack and the action see-sawed with neither team really getting on top and so taking your chances became key. Again Accies backline via Jamie Doig sliced their way through the GHK backline and a penalty to Accies resulted. Again Ali Mclaren took the chance and Accies extended their lead to 19 – 5 with the final scoring action of the game.

If possession and territory were the deciders then GHK would have got a lot more points on the board although the number of kickable penalty chances GHK had were few, from this observers view if the GHK backline had showed a little more composure in their passing the result could have been different however as it turned out Accies had the cutting edge and took their chances well.


Stephen

This article was posted on 10-Mar-2007, 11:57 by Hugh Barrow.