From our Accie correspondent Ally G
Forrester 10 Glasgow Accies 17
Saturday 20th September 2008
Accies First Away Win of the Season

Any away win in this league is a good win and Accies had to dig deep to bring off this one especially as the pitch at Forrester is worth at least a seven point start for the home side. This highly ambitious community club are waiting for new pitches to be built and the meantime they have only one poor sloping pitch for all their teams and large junior section to play on. Fortunately it was a windless day as it is very exposed and it was very soft after the prolonged rain of the summer.
Accies played well enough to deserve the points and maintain their promotion challenge. Two factors separated the sides, firstly Accies superb defence in the second half and the extraordinary performance Cruz Kawakameni who’s strength and forceful running gave him all Accies three tries. He has now scored seven tries in four league matches.
Accies got off to a poor start and for the first 15 minutes they were under the cosh even playing with the advantage of the slope. In this period they gave away no fewer than six penalties. In fact they took until half time to get on the same wave length as the referee. By half time the penalty count against them was 13-1. In the second half things improved and the penalties were more evenly distributed.
In the 15th minute Forrester were awarded a penalty in front of the posts that they chose to run. The attack was halted but the Accies defence were penalised again for not being back the required 10 metres. This time Forrester elected to kick for the first score of the game.
This seemed to spur Accies into action. They surged down the slope and after a good spell of inter passing between backs and forwards, Cruz was given enough room to break through several tackles to score the first try of his hatrick.
By this stage Accies were well on top. From 60 metre out a superb try followed as a result. Started by Graeme Simpson and Cruz and several other players in on the act it was finished by Cruz who surged on for the last 15 metres to score beside the posts. Richard McKnight converted for a 12-3 lead.
At this time Accies should have consolidated their advantage while they had the advantage of the slope but they took the foot off the accelerator and let their dangerous opponents back into the game. With only three minutes remaining in the half Forrester broke through the centre of the defence for the only time in the game and their centre scored a well taken try that was converted to reduce the deficit to 10-12. This was a worrying moment as Accies had to play up the hill in the second half.
Accies started the second half much more aggressively than the first and pinned Forrester back in their own half. After 10 minutes they were awarded a penalty in front of goal and 27 metres back. They chose to kick it to touch and the chance of easy points was lost. At this stage this correspondent wondered if this might be a costly decision.
Accies continued to defend well and thrive on counter attacking up the slope. On one such occasion, on the hour mark, they were awarded a five metre scrum on the Forrester goal line and Cruz made full use of the new law, that defenders must lie back by five metres, to use his strength to plough over for his third try of the afternoon and give Accies a 17-10 lead that was to prove decisive.
For the next half hour Forrester threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Accies defence but they managed to hold out. Even under such pressure they still had opportunities to get the try that would have given them the bonus point. First Ross Chisels intercepted inside his own half but didn’t quite have the speed to run the length of the field up the slope. In the dying minute of the game a great break out by Richard McKnight and Mike Hermes resulted in Accies being awarded a lineout five or six metres from the line. Unfortunately they didn’t connect with the ball at this lineout and Forrester were able to clear the danger.
There were two players making their first start for Accies, Ewan Shand playing his final game before going to Exeter University and 21 year old prop forward Fabbi Marchetti both acquitted themselves well and have a big future in the game.
This was the sort of tight match that Accies would have lost last season but this is an Accies side with greater fitness and determination to succeed. There are now three team above them in the league and in the next four weeks they are all to be played. The crucial part of the season is about to arrive.

This article was posted on 21-Sep-2008, 10:12 by Hugh Barrow.