Glasgow Accies 36 v Strathendrick 10

SHE Scottish Cup 3rd Round

Saturday 20th December 2008

New Anniesland




‘Accies Progress to meet Selkirk in Round 4’




After a day of torrential rain it was a joy to open the curtains on Saturday to see the sun streaming in the window and a mild and bright winter day in prospect.

Despite the previous days rain the pitch at New Anniesland provided a surface fit for fast running rugby and we got some.

On paper Accies should have progressed comfortably to the next round in a match against a side lying in sixth place in National League 4 West division 1, the same league that GHK sit in top place. They did eventually by dint of superior fitness and hard running by both backs and forwards.

However in the first half Strathendrick put up a great fight. They have a set of backs that had the confidence the throw the ball wide to stretch and test the opposition defence to the full. On several occasions they were able to breach the Accies first line of defence and Accies had to scramble back to recover the situation. However they only scored one try but it was a real beauty. They were gifted the ball from an awful clearance kick and ran it wide. Their full back came in at a superb angle and was straight through to the posts to level the scores at 7-7. In their full back and stand off they had two really good players not often seen at this level in the game.

Apart from that and one penalty goal in the middle of the first half Accies had most of the play and virtually all of the territorial advantage in the second half.

Accies scored 6 tries, 3 in each half and eventually ran out comfortable winners.

There were outstanding performances from Cruz, man of the match Jack Walker and Chris Wright in the pack and in the backs Richard McKnight, captain, Stewart Smith, Ricky Munday, Mike Hermes and Euan Shand had just too much class for the opposition.

Accies started well enough but were a bit over anxious and vital passes went to ground. Perhaps it was the day after ‘daft Friday’ and it took time to get the previous days excesses out of the system. However in the 12th minute they did get the first score of the day.

A penalty was kicked into touch in the left corner. From the lineout Accies were awarded a scrum from which Cruz forced his way over for a try converted by Richard McKnight 7-0

Within two minutes Strathendrick were back in the game with the try described above and they were playing with real commitment. This only spurred Accies into action and in the 20th minute of the match they scored a lovely try. Ricky Munday prized open a gap in the middle of the field at halfway, Mike Hermes came off his right wing to take the pass and fed to intruding fullback Euan Shand who ran 40 metres before slipping it to Cruz, who had backed up brilliantly, who sauntered over for his second try and 15th of the season, not bad for a second row forward. Richard McKnight converted for 14-7

Once again Strathendrick came back and picked up 3 points from a simple penalty.

14-10.

Accies had one more score before the interval and it was vintage Mike Hermes. A spilled pass at half way was picked up by Accies and quickly fed to Mike who had space but still two men to beat. On went the after burners and they were left in his wake as he scored in the corner.

Half Time 19-10.

The second half was pretty well all one-way traffic but Strathendrick defended well enough to limit Accies to 3 tries.

The first came after another mazy run by fullback Euan Shand that was stopped just short resulting in a penalty to Accies that they kicked into the corner. From the subsequent lineout it was spun wide for Ricky Munday to dummy his way over despite a three-man overlap outside him. 24-10.

Just prior to the score Strathendrick’ No.6 was yellow carded for persistent offending mainly caused by the frustration of not getting a supply of the ball.

Accies were now in full flow. Graeme McKnight stole a ball from the base of a scrum before passing to Stewart Smith who surged through the centre of the defence and off loaded to Mark Hannah to go over for his first try in Accies colours. Richard McKnight converted. 31-7

The final try came from a short penalty that was quickly taken to allow Stewart Smith to make another surge through the twenty-two. He laid it off for his centre partner Ricky Munday to crash over for his second try of the match to mark a welcome return to Accies.

This was a competent performance from an improving Accies side that have now won five games in a row but they will still have to step up a gear for the upcoming match against Selkirk on 10th January and the rest of the league season.

The next game is against the Accies Exiles on Boxing Day kick off 2pm. There are still tickets available for the pre-match lunch

This article was posted on 20-Dec-2008, 19:25 by Hugh Barrow.