Glasgow Accies 1st.XV vs Stewartry at Castle Douglas Sat.17 January,2009.

Our regular “scribe”, Alasdair Graham was unavailable for the trip to Stewartry so Gordon Wilson substituted for the day, so the content will be less professional than usual, but may possibly have more accurate spelling !!
ACCIES ON FIRE FOR TRIP TO STEWARTRY

Unfortunately the kick-off was delayed for 10 minutes as the heating system on the coach over-heated, and caught fire, so we had to evacuate hastily, just off the M74 near Lesmahagow. Happily a replacement coach arrived within 40 minutes.
Stewartry is never an easy ground to come away from with a victory, and the weather and ground conditions dictated that there would be a hard fought game up front, ..and so it proved to be. Accies elected to play into the strong Sou’westerly gale in the first half and the match turned into a forward battle for most of the game, as handling in the backs was almost impossible in the conditions. Accies strong pack controlled the game very effectively for the first 20 minutes and the Stewartry side made little use of the strong tail wind, however on their first breakaway scamper into Accies territory they won a penalty 40 metres out which was sent narrowly wide. They won another penalty some 7 minutes later, this time their attempt rebounding back off the upright. For the remainder of the half Accies had to defend their goal line continuously as Stewartry fought hard for the chance of a score whilst playing downwind. Accies made a monumental effort to protect their line, and bit by bit forced their way back to half-way. It appeared that halftime would be reached with no scoring to break the dead-lock, however an unfortunate refereeing decision allowed a Stewartry flanker to enter a scrum from the side, and the ball was quickly spun out their backs, and finding Accies defence short on the left, they ran 40 metres to score an unconverted try in the corner. Half time 5 – 0

With Accies playing with the wind in the 2nd. half one felt that it would take no time for them to put some scores on the board. However the reality proved different! Sadly we were held to a continuing forward tussle by a determined Stewartry pack and it was 25 minutes into the second half before we were able to open our account. On the Stewartry “22” Accies broke right on the blind side for winger Mark Hannah to sneak round a couple of defenders to score a well-taken try in the corner. It was an almost impossible task to convert from the touchline in the extreme conditions. Score…….5 – 5.
Stewartry were never in the Accies half in the second half, but unfortunately in the last 10 minutes of the game Accies were unlucky with a couple of penalty attempts, and perhaps squandered a few opportunities to take on the Stewartry backs, deciding instead to keep the game tight. However, teams had missed opportunities, but the Accies team acquitted themselves extremely well, and will still play a part, I am sure, in determining who in the Division will gain promotion. We can be proud of an Accies side that does not give up.
FINAL SCORE……..5 - 5.

This article was posted on 20-Jan-2009, 08:26 by Hugh Barrow.