Glasgow Accies 15 v Irvine 43

Scottish Cup Shield

New Anniesland

1st March 2008



“Accies out muscled in cup clash”



Defying the miserable early weather conditions Accies start this Scottish Cup Shield fixture against Irvine brightly with some strong opening salvos.

Accies early endeavours are rewarded with an early Gareth Williams penalty to take the lead with barely 5 minutes on the clock.

The encouraging start continues but a lightweight Accies pack, with 4 regulars out injured, start to come under pressure from Irvine’s heavy pack and Irvine win a penalty to level the score at 3 all.



With both Accies scrum and lineout under pressure it was from lineout turnover ball that Irvine got their first try, moving the ball wide and quickly to out stretch the Accies defence and score an excellent try from their pacy left winger.



Accies 3 – Irvine 8.



Despite coming under more and more pressure in the scrum and lineout Accies continue to play some spirited rugby and defiant defence holds out Irvine until half time.



Accies start the second half in the same mood as the first but the pressure from Irvine is unrelenting and they manage to turnover ball in a midfield ruck and quickly the Irvine stand off kicks ahead, their pacy left wing gathers the kick and races in for his second try converted well from the touchline.



Accies 3 – Irvine 15



Irvine strike again almost immediately, under pressure Accies kick out of their 22m zone, Irvine collect and run it back at Accies, good support play sees Irvine’s stand off collect the final pass and with no defenders left he ran in from 20 metres to score an excellent try.



Accies 3 – Irvine 22



With the pressure on Accies scrum and lineout continuing Accies decide to play a wider more open game and get an immediate reward, with the ball moving from side to side of the pitch Accies maintained possession, probing for the opening. As the ball is moved right prop Jamie Corskery receives the pass and sets off at pace from 40 metres out. Showing a clean pair of heels he sprints in to the corner for Accies opening try.



Accies 8 – Irvine 22



Suddenly it’s all Accies as they continue with the open, fast and loose style moving the ball from wing to wing with excellent continuity and at as the ball comes down the left hand side Ross Chassells collects and breaks two tackles to score under the posts. Gareth Williams converting.



Accies 15 – Irvine 22



Clearly uncomfortable with Accies open style of rugby Irvine close up the game and play through the pack to strike back for their third try as quick recycled ball from their pack is popped to their centre who crashed over from 5 metres out.



Accies 15 – Irvine 29



Sadly for Accies Irvine were to score two further tries as the game wound down and Accies pack tired with the game to finish Accies 15 – Irvine 43.



For Accies, Cup involvement is over for this year, but they can build upon some excellent play in this game as forwards and backs interlinked for spells of good open rugby and go forward to the remaining league fixtures with some confidence. The key difficulty for Accies today was that they were out muscled by a strong Irvine pack that dominated to tight phases of the game which gave Irvine the platform to build upon. A tough day for some of Accies younger players in the pack but hopefully one they can learn from in terms of the standard of rugby they need to play at week in week out.



Stephen

This article was posted on 2-Mar-2008, 23:20 by Hugh Barrow.