Cumbernauld 22 GHK 10

After the euphoria of winning the league last week we were back down to earth with a bump at an extremely cold and windy Auchinkilns Park. A fair number of the regular players were missing for various reasons and we only had one player in reserve – the evergreen forwards coach Ken Cowan. Not only that, but the grizzled veteran that is Charlie Dunlop was gracing the park on the wing.
So with bufties poised the game kicked off. The writing was on the wall from the start with the kick off being laboriously fumbled and immediate pressure coming from a solid Cumbernauld pack with the howling gale at their backs.
The bold Rory Love made the ownership of the black dress a virtual certainly with the most outrageous attempt to volley the ball instead of collecting it securely. Once we all stopped laughing we were treated to some pretty feeble defence and strong Cumbernauld rucking getting them in position to get over our try line. A good conversion and we were 7-0 down in six minutes.
Charlie showed there was life in the old dog yet with some first rate collecting and tackling over on the right wing but mistakes from others were the more dominant theme at this point.
A bit of structure began to emerge and a good handling move in the backs gave Rory a chance to make amends but the Cumbernauld winger was up to the task. Immediately after this positive moment we reverted to shoddy tackling and Cumbernauld powered over for another try – 12-0.
Another decent run from Rory should have been better rewarded but after he chipped ahead he was impeded by the no 15 but the ref decided it was not late. For the record the ref, having travelled all the way from Manchester for the game, was pretty sound throughout.
We went through another careless spell before half time giving away several penalties having got into promising positions. However, from a good chip and chase by Mike Aird, the ball eventually got out to Rory who outstripped the defence this time and got in for our first try. Unconverted so 12-5 at half time.
Straight from the restart we displayed another dose of poor tackling and the big Cumbernauld no 5 took advantage and powered over for an unconverted try 17-5. To emphasise the strength of the wind, the conversion attempt ended up at half way!
Charlie again showed his mettle with an excellent cover tackle on his winger – that’s your fiver’s worth now coach.
With the wind at our backs we should have been residing in their 22 but unhappily we just got outmuscled over and over at the breakdown and could not sustain any real pressure.
A series of penalties got us down there eventually and we did manage to stay for a spell. 3 or 4 more penalties got us close and from one quick tap Danny Hoffman managed to barge over. 17-10 and we felt we could conceivably sneak a win or at least a draw. However, today’s Achilles heel of feeble tackling reared its ugly head again (great mixed metaphor) and the Cumbernauld no 11 drove over in the corner to close it out at 22-10.
Only the second league defeat of the season, but we are all mighlity relieved that this result was academic.

We need to be at full strength and cut out all the careless stuff or Murrayfield Wanderers will trounce us in the Bowl come April 18th.

The Veep

GHK Team

G Woolard, R Love, P Ritchie, D Hoffman, C Dunlop, R Stewart, M Aird, W Wong, G Reid, C McLay, E Thow, C Harvey, P Broadbent, S Cameron, M Borthwick Replacement K Cowan
This article was posted on 5-Apr-2009, 17:08 by Colin Wilson.

This article was posted on 6-Apr-2009, 10:35 by Hugh Barrow.