Caithness 10 Glasgow Accies 8

Saturday 15th September 07



Accies made the long trip to Wick full of hope of avenging last seasons fixture when an understrength team were put to the sword on a fine sunny day. The contrast to this seasons fixture could not have been any more stark. This season’s Accies team are made of much sterner stuff, the weather was dreadful and the pitch quite unbelievable. Not every team can enjoy the fantastic facilities at New Anniesland but a pitch that has an eight feet drop from the half way line to the try line is not suitable for rugby at this level. Sadly, the Caithness side clearly do not have much support from their local council as three perfectly flat football pitches beside the rugby field and the excellent Wick Academy school pitches all lay unused. However, the conditions were equal for both sides and playing with the elements in the first half Accies didn’t convert enough of their chances to subdue a limited Caithness side. Accies established a first half lead of 5-0 through a well-worked try by Pete Meiklem after 18 minutes. The ball was driven to the high side of the cross slope and recycled through forwards and backs until Pete was given space to dive over. As the first half wore on Accies were pounding away at Caithness but weren’t able to convert their chances into points as a mixture of over enthusiasm, anxiety and some stout Caithness defence meant that Accies couldn’t extend their lead.



Half Time: Caithness 0 – Accies 5



A 5-0 half time lead was always going to be touch and go, as Accies had to play into the wind and rain and dig out the crampons to scale the sloped pitch, to be confident of victory and so it proved. With the wind, rain and slope in their favour Caithness camped in the Accies 22 for long periods of the second half and only Accies magnificent defence held them out. The defensive quality Accies have is turning out to be a real asset this early in the season. However mid way through this period they eventually drove over for the equalising score.

Released from defending the line at the bottom of the hill / pitch Accies had their best period of the second half as they unleashed their superior back division to run them out of trouble and gain territory at the high end of the ground. The pressure paid off and Gareth Williams kicked a penalty to restore the lead to 8-5.

As so often in tight matches of this sort the referee’s decisions make a vital impact and two of these had a major bearing on the outcome of this match.

The first came with 10 minutes to go. The Caithness back division attempted to run the ball on the 10 metre line in the Accies half. The Caithness centre dropped the ball forward and then fly hacked it hitting one of his own players standing 5 metres in front of him. The referee for some unknown reason decided to let this pass, Caithness regained possession and drove it into the bottom corner from where they scored what proved to be the winning score.

The second came at the very end of the game. Accies responded to the Caithness try and in the last 8 minutes it was all Accies as wave after wave of attack followed. Jamie Doig twice beat the first line of attack only to be stopped short. Caithness defended desperately and eventually conceded a penalty. Gareth Williams’s kick fell short of the posts and Caithness carried over. Inexplicably the referee awarded a 22-drop out which was promptly kicked out of play on the full and the referee blew for full time when it should have been a scrum to Accies 5 metres out in front of the posts. On such decisions games are won and lost.



Final score: Caithness 10 – Accies 8



To add to the strange events in the game, the old cliché “it was a game of two half’s” was literally enacted with the first being 48 minutes long and the second 38 with the referee borrowing a watch from Accies coach, Simon Wintle, as both of his watches had succumbed to the rain.

On the positive side Accies gained a losing bonus point and they are playing better each week so expect the results to improve.

One final note - it is a long way home from Wick in a coach on a Saturday night, six and a half hours to be precise, but spare a thought for Caithness who have to do a major trip like this 11 times in a season.

This article was posted on 17-Sep-2007, 07:49 by Hugh Barrow.