Greenock Wanderers 41 Glasgow Accies 7
Fort Matilda
Saturday 13th February 2010
 
Accies supporters reading the above scoreline must wonder what on earth happened. The answer is that if it could go wrong then it did.
Accies knew that the strength in this Wanderers side is in their fast and nippy back division and they devised a plan to counter this by keeping the ball in hand and using the power of the pack to deny the opposition any attacking opportunities. For 30 minutes it worked a treat despite the loss of Stewart Smith. in the first move of the game, with a serious looking facial injury that necessitated hospital treatment.
The rejiged back division coped with everything that was thrown at them except the referee’s decisions. There was a blizzard of penalties in the half, in fact more than there were scrums. Both sides were dumfounded at the flurry of decisions that ensured that there was little or no continuity. The large support on the touchline had come to witness a game of running rugby played by the best two running sides in the league. They did not get it and the sole topic of conversation at half time was the referee.
In the 24th minute the tide of his decisions turned firmly against Accies as in the remaining time in the half he yellow carded, first, Richard McKnight and then Steve Begley, the latter for pulling a player down at the lineout. This was an interesting one as Begley was two or three yards away from the point of contact at the time.
Wanderers kicked a penalty from the McKnight incident and lead by 3-0 until the 34th minute, which proved to be the most crucial point in the game. The ball squirted out from a scrum near to Accies line and the referee claimed that an Accies player had obstructed the Wanderers scum half as he was trying to score. He could not have been certain that a try would have resulted but still awarded a penalty try.
10-0.
In the dying minute of the half the loss of Begley proved to be crucial as his bulk was missing when Wanderers squeezed over in the corner for a 15-0 half time lead
Immediately before that the Greenock hooker was yellow carded for a late tackle on Richard McKnight.
Accies confidence was destroyed and the game plan disintegrated in the second half.
Not helped by a succession of injuries involving, Jack Walker, Andy Jackson (who was stamped but not seen by the referee), Brad Bell and Matt Smith.
However it has to be said that in the end the class of the Wanderers back division was the telling factor. They are quite outstanding at using the half chance and turning it
into a scoring opportunity. In the half they scored four more tries converting three of them. They also tackled superbly especially in the centre as time after time Accies looked certain to score but at the last ditch a thumping tackle saved the day. On the other hand although Accies also put in some mighty tackles two many were missed, Alan Wilson could be excused from this criticism as often he was last man standing and saved the day.
The refereeing blunders continued, firstly Ben Wilkinson dropped the ball in his own-in-goal area but appeared to recover and touched it down. The referee saw it differently and awarded a score. This was followed at 22-0 when he ruled out a good score by Craig Wright in the right hand corner. Even his father said it was a score.
From this point on Accies had to chase the game but sadly this lead to handling errors and turnovers giving the opportunity for Greenock to counter-attack .
Accies had a fair share of possession and territory in the half but seemed destined to never score. A blistering run of 45 metres by Andy Jackson seemed to be a certain try but there was no support and he was hauled down a metre shot of the line. Oh how Accies missed Cruz Kakaweni especially for his powerful support running. Accies had several scoring opportunities but their drives close to the line were all held up and Steve Begley seemed to have been singled out as he was unable to get through at any stage. In the final minute Accies eventually got a consolation try when Jamie Doig forced his way over and Richard McKnight converted to put a little respectability into the scoreline.
At the end the Wanderers support were jubilant and quite rightly so they had a handsome victory and their team had played superbly but even they conceded that the final score was not a reflection on what had happened on the field. They had met Accies on a day when the perfect storm hit them. Too many key players were absent, the loss of the highly influential Stewart Smith in the first minute, the yellow cards and the controversial penalty try all contributed to Accies downfall as did Accies themselves by being unable to change the game plan and up their game when it was needed.
The good news, however, is that Lasswade lost to bottom club Cambuslang by 15-10 and Accies stay in second place ahead of them by three points. It is still all there to play for. So perhaps it wasn’t quite so bad a day at the office after all.
Next week Accies have another tricky away fixture at Kilmarnock and the coaches will be anxious to get the medical reports on the injuries to determine who will take the field.
 
The 2ndXV also lost in controversial circumstances by 25-5 to an East Kilbride team that seemed to be most of their 1st XV. Only two players were recognised from the game at East Kilbride earlier in the season when Accies won comfortably.

This article was originally posted on 14-Feb-2010, 10:40 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 14-Feb-2010, 12:07.