Glasgow Accies 65 Preston Lodge 5
New Anniesland
6th March 2010
 
“A Highly Satisfactory Performance”
 
After the long lay off due to the frost one might have expected Accies to be a little ring rusty. But far from it as they put on a very competent performance of attacking running rugby straight from the start to eventually romp home to an eleven tries to one victory.
Andy Jackson gathered the Preston Lodge kick off and made 30 metres of ground before being tackled. PL infringed and from the penalty a series of rucks and mauls combined with another three penalties and Accies were on their opponents line where Brad Bell was given enough space to romp over for the opening try. A highly aggressive start that caught PL flat-footed and set the tone of the game from that time on. This was the sort of start that Accies had only achieved on a few occasions so far this season.
PL were to kick off 6 more times in the first half and five times Andy Jackson caught the ball and made huge territorial gains that took Accies back into their opponents half. From one of these he linked up with centre Jamie Doig who made a clean break before sending Stewart Smith on a lung-bursting run from halfway for a score under the posts. This was the fourth try of the half in the 24th minute and it secured the bonus point. In between Richard McKnight picked up a brace, firstly from a quickly taken penalty and then a lovely little break from a ruck after good work by Matteo Giovanazzi and Brad Bell.
Accies completed the half with two tries by Andy Jackson who had a terrific 40 minutes. The first of these was the culmination of a superb handling move involving a number of players working in unison from the halfway line.
The halftime whistle came after 40 minutes of frantic and breathless running rugby and a score of 38-0. The most relieved person to get a break was Brian Barclay the scoreboard operator who needed a wee lie down to recover from his exertions.
Not only had Accies attacked well during the half but also their defence was pretty solid on the few occasions that PL had the ball. In contrast to the last game at Greenock the referee Tom McNicol had allowed the game to flow with sensible use of the advantage and policing the breakdown and tackle situations cleverly.
The question now was could Accies keep up the momentum into the second half. The answer came in the first minute almost from the kick off. Accies were awarded a scrum 30 metres out from the line and the old 8-9-14 move worked a treat. Pick up by No.8 Graeme Simpson at the back of the scrum and a feed to scrum half Richard McKnight who drew in the defenders before slipping it to Mike Hermes who beat two men on his way to the try line. 43-0 and more to come.
The remainder of the second half was relatively calm after the excitement of the first. This was partly due to the fact that Accies lost Jack Walker and Andy Jackson due to injury and centre Jamie Doig had to move to flanker where he acquitted himself very well.
All three replacements, Ali McLaren, Matt Franklin and Robin Bryant came on and each made a telling contribution. This is a testimony to Accies strength in depth.
Four more tries were scored in the half. The next one was scored by Brad Bell after a good bout of handling. The third by Graeme Simpson following an excellent drive by the forward. The fourth by ‘flanker’ Doig who followed up a searing break by Alan Wilson through the middle of the field, converted by Ali McLaren and finally Ali McLaren gathered a poor clearance to fly in at the corner.
Between the penultimate try and the final try PL had their best spell in the game and their forwards drove the Accies pack back over their own line for a hard earned touch down. To their credit PL never game up and the game was played in a sporting manner
There were a number of significant features in the game. Firstly was the pace that Accies played with. Secondly the security of their handling by both backs and forwards. Thirdly the half back link, Richard McKnight was back to his best with little darting runs from the back of scrums, ruck and mauls and Alan Wilson had his best game of the season so far and his distribution and line of running highly commendable. All of this was made possible by the quality and speed of ball secured by the forwards who collectively played very well indeed.
If Accies can take this form into the last four league games of the season they will certainly be ready for any slip that Lasswade might make.
Next Saturday is a SHE Shield tie against RHC opponents from the league above and a useful test to see how that can perform at a higher level. Because of the match at Murrayfield the game will kick off at 12-30pm.
 
Scorers
Tries
Brad Bell 2
Andy Jackson 2
Richard McKnight 2
Stewart Smith 1
Mike Hermes 1
Graeme Simpson 1
Jamie Doig 1
Ali McLaren 1
Conversions
Richard McKnight 2
Ali McLaren 1
 

This article was posted on 7-Mar-2010, 10:49 by Hugh Barrow.