West of Scotland v 2nd Glasgow Accies
Reserve League match
19th September 2009
Burnbrae
 
After Hawks defeat on friday evening and Accies loss at Caithness on Saturday it is good to be able to bring one piece of good news. The 2nd XV beat their league rival West of Scotland by 19-15 in a pulsating game at Burnbrae and are now undefeated after three league encounters. There is no doubt that this was a good result as West were able to field a strong, young side that has its own ambition to gain promotion from this league. Since the arrival of John Beattie as coach at Burnbrae the Club's fortunes have turned around and they are able to field three sides. This is good for rugby in the Glasgow area.
Accies have a surfeit of threequarters and a shortage of forwards. This meant that 6'-8" Robert Fuller had to play out of position at loose head prop. Not ideal but he still made a valuable contribution in the loose with his rampaging elephant style runs up the field scattering all before him. In the tight it was different as Accies struggled to secure their own ball. Midway through the second half Accies rejigged their pack and Robert moved into the second row and the difference was night from day as Accies started to boss the tight as well as the loose.
The first half was a ding-dong affair with West getting the better share of the spoils to lead 10-5 at the interval. Accies points coming from a good try by fullback Ross Chassels coming into the line at a clever angle and scything through for a try in the corner.
After the break West continued to have most of the territorial advantage. Midway through the half Accies lost a ball against the head and this enabled the ball to be spread wide to the right wing who had enough space to scamper home for a 15-5 scoreline.
With 20 minutes remaining a West forward had a rush of blood to the head and was yellow carded. This together with the changes in the pack and switching Richard Taylor to Scrum Half and Richard McKnight to Stand Off proved to be the pivotal point in the game. Now Accies were dominating proceedings and playing the game in West's half.
A piece of sheer brilliance from Richard McKnight proved to be highly significant. He made a clean break from close to halfway and left several defenders in his wake. With only the fullback in his road he found an Accies player on each side of him and he chose to pass inside where Mark Hannah, who had just come on as a replacement, was on hand to finish the move. From a tight angle Andrew Smart kicked an excellent conversion to close the gap to 15-12.
Bhouyed by this Accies had their tails up and another piece of clever rugby lead to the winning score.
From a lineout on the right on the 22 metre line Accies moved the ball left. Mark Hannah had come across from his berth on the right wing and ran a smart angle straight through the West defence for a try under the posts converted by Andrew Smart.
Accies had left it late but now were home and dry by 19-15.
This was an excellent advert for 2nd XV rugby. The game was fast, mainly skilful and full of raw endeavour. It was what rugby is all about 30+ guys having fun, burning up energy and enjoying the companionship of their friends and a few pints on the way home, long may that last.
Finally a word of thanks to the referee who handled the game skilfully allowing it to flow and being unobtrusive throughout.
Next week the 2nd XV are at home to Strathendrick and they will want to add to their points tally of 14 out of a possible 15 and three wins in a row.
 
A report on the Accies match at Thurso will follow when Donald Reid gets back from Caithness

This article was posted on 20-Sep-2009, 18:20 by Hugh Barrow.