Glasgow Accies 14 Hawick YM 36

New Anniesland

Saturday 31st January 2009-02-01

Disappointing Performance from Accies in 2nd Half Lets them Down

You have to wonder if the disappointment of the loss to Linlithgow last Saturday, that effectively ruled out any chance of promotion, had anything to do with Accies poor performance on Saturday. Perhaps it had more to do with the fact that they were playing against a side that had everything to play for. However Accies waited till the 18th game of the season to give their worst display of the year.

There were mitigating circumstance. In a back division that was already weakened they lost Jamie Stewart, one of their best defenders, after only 8 minutes with a nasty cut eye. With only one back replacement Iain Williamson, normally a scrum half, he had to play on the wing and Mark Hannah, normally a wing, had to play in the centre. Before all this Gareth Williams who is a great attacking force at full back was needed at stand off to replace the injured Alan Wilson. With all these changes the Accies backs failed to play with any composure and were largely ineffective as an attacking unit. This was a great pity because the forwards played pretty well and more than matched their opponents especially at the lineout where Jack Walker dominated and in the tight where they controlled the ball effectively.

By and large the result hinged on the fact that Accies couldn’t handle the ball and Hawick YM could making fewer unforced errors.

The first half was fairly even with the play flowing backwards and forwards making it an exciting game unlike last week’s turgid affair. The Hawick backs were prepared to throw the ball around and make full use of the good surface. They did this very effectively and their second try of the half was an excellent example of this. They ran the ball left, recycled it quickly and ran it right by which time Accies had run out of cover defenders and a try was scored at the side of the posts. Their first try was more of a lucky affair. In the 12th minute after defending for a long period, two Accies defenders allowed a speculative kick out of defence to bounce and it popped back into the arms of the speedy left winger who simply ran on and touched down in the corner for an unconverted score.

In between these scores Accies had their best period of the match and scored a good try. After a sustained period of attack they ran the ball from a set piece. Gareth Williams dummied to go left and found Ross Chassels with his pass. Ross had come in from fullback at a clever angle to run unopposed to the line for a try converted by Richard McKnight.

Half time Accies 7 Hawick YM 12

With the encouraging news coming from Old Anniesland that Hawks were well on top of the big Hawick side it was hoped that something similar could happen at New Anniesland. But it was not to be.

Accies started the half into the breeze and for 10 minutes were well on top. Unfortunately they could not control the ball and in this period lost it 5 times for one reason or another. This was all the encouragement that this enterprising Hawick side need to get their back division into action. The first score came from a controversial penalty. It looked like a forward pass but the referee didn’t see it that way and it ended in a simple penalty. After this Accies got more and more frustrated with the referee especially as he failed to punish Hawick for falling over to protect their own ball. The more frustrated they became the more the decisions went against them and sad to say their heads went down. Hawick took full advantage of this to run in three more tries through their backs to close the game out at 7-36.Accies defence at this stage were all at sea.

Eventually, with five minutes remaining Accies put in a sustained attack. The forwards decided to do it on their own and after a frantic period camped on the line Cruz crashed over for a consolation try.

There is little doubt that the better side on the day won the game. They deserve to be promoted simply because they are prepared to play rugby the way it was intended. After all it is a running game.

Accies will need to learn to say little even when decisions go against them because it can prove to be costly in the end.

Hopefully Accies will bounce back if the can find a centre partnership that can play together on a regular basis. It has not been a good season to be a centre. Firstly captain Jamie Doig got injured before the season started, then Ryan Moseby had to return to New Zealand and finally Ricky Munday, Ross Kennedy and Alan Wilson all picked up long term injuries. And now Jamie Stewart is added to that list. They thought they had it sorted when Chris Breckenridge came over from Hawks but he was pulled back as he was required for the 2nd XV as they too were short of players. Hopefully next season they will all return and there will be competition for places again.

Next week Accies have the daunting task of playing top of the league Whitecraigs away from home.

This article was posted on 1-Feb-2009, 10:56 by Hugh Barrow.