Kilmarnock 10 Glasgow Accies 6

Bellsland

8th November 2008


In the post match interview Head Coach Donald Reid expressed his disappointment and frustration at losing a game in which Accies had 80% of the possession and territorial advantage. He said that he was more than pleased with the forwards who were excellent at the breakdown and had performed as well as at any other time during the season.

The problem lay with the back division. The previous week against Newton Stewart they had been exemplarary but today had simply not functioned as a unit with the handling in the stiff south-westerly breeze being disappointing as too many passes failed to reach the target or simply were dropped. Donald finished by saying that a lot of hard work will have to go in on the training ground over the next two weeks.

The determining factor in the end was the wind. Accies had it in their favour in the first half and started the game at a cracking pace and dominated the early play.

It took only 5 minutes to open the scoring when Richard McKnight kicked a penalty from 30 metres out.

From the kick off Accies continued to press. A beautiful kick by stand off Alan Wilson from his own half took Accies to a lineout 5-metres out from the line. But despite the pressure they could not break down a resolute Kilmarnock defence.

In the 17th minute Accies were awarded another penalty and again Richard McKnight knocked it over for a 6-0 lead.

At this stage Accies knew that they would have to put points on the board and wave after wave of attack followed.

Firstly Richard McKnight made a superb break from the back of a scrum near to the halfway line but he failed to spot that Jamie Stewart had come in from his wing and was in the clear inside him and the chance was lost. Then Ryan Moseby broke out on the right and found Mike Hermes in space outside him but there was not enough room for him to squeeze through.

With ten minutes of the half remaining Accies backs started to get desperate for a score but over anxiety lead to errors and good opportunities were spurned.

The half time lead of 6-0 really didn’t look to be enough with Accies having to play into the wind on the exposed pitch.

Accies brought on Cruz and Gareth Williams and they were both early into the action as Accies made a determined effort to get an early score but despite the pressure they could not get over the line. Every time they lost possession Kilmarnock kicked down wind and it was Accies turn to defend. Killie were awarded two penalties in succession and Accies failed to defend the second quickly enough and a Kilmarnock forward managed to squeeze over to narrow the score to 6-5 in Accies favour.

At this stage the game started to get niggly with many Accies tackles ending up in skirmishes on the ground. Eventually the exchange referee from Yorkshire was forced to take action and Andy Jackson and his opposite no.7 were yellow carded.

The last 15 minutes of the half was riddled with handling errors and penalties against them that put Accies under considerable pressure. After three 5-metre scrums Accies appeared to have cleared the danger when they won a scrum against the head and a penalty for a player being pulled down at the subsequent line out. But yet again they gave away a penalty and the pressure was back on. Kilmarnock turned over a ruck and had a three to two overlap allowing the Kilmarnock winger to dive over for what proved to be the winning score.

Accies thought they had another five minutes to make up the deficit but the referee had other ideas and blew for time early. He cannot have enjoyed it too much as there were far too many niggly incidents to get an entertaining game of rugby.

Hopefully this was just a bad day for the Accies back division and in the two weeks till the next two weeks till the Highland game in Inverness they can solve the communication problems.

The first half of the season is now over and Accies have won six and lost five. The good news is that they still have 6 home games to play and three of them are against sides that beat them away from home.

This article was posted on 9-Nov-2008, 19:27 by Hugh Barrow.