Glasgow Accies 36 Newton Stewart 3
1st Round Scottish Shield
5th February 2011
New Anniesland

Accies Win Assures 2nd Round Tie V Allan Glens

For 40 minutes Accies stormed through this Shield tie to lead their opponents 24-3 by half time. Accies knew that Newton Stewart had a powerful pack that would try to control the rucks and mauls and attempt to squeeze the life out of the Accies pack given the chance. It had happened in the previous game in November. This time Accies made sure that they minimised the rucks and mauls and moved the ball at speed at every opportunity. Their handling was sound and the running onto the ball and support play of a very high order. It all lead to a highly entertaining game of rugby.
It took only 7 minutes for the tactics to work. Scrum half Stephen O’Donnell, who had a first rate game throughout, nudged a penalty into the right hand corner and Accies won the line out. The ball came to Stewart Smith, who was playing stand off, and he made a lunge for the line but was stopped short. The ball came backwards out of his hands and bounced nicely for full back Craig Wright who danced past a couple of would be tacklers and scored under the posts. Stephen O’Donnell converted. 7-0.
7 minutes later Accies won a scrum on their own 10-metre line and swift hands transferred it to Mike Hermes in space. He turned on the gas and roared down the right touchline from halfway, outstripping all the defenders for an outstanding try, again converted by O’Donnell.
Accies were now in full flow with backs and forwards moving the ball at real speed.
Adam Taylor playing second row was next to barge through the centre of the field. He found Stewart Smith on his shoulder and his excellent cut out pass found Mike Hermes on the wing, There was no way of stopping the flying winger as he raced over for his second try. It was great stuff 17 minutes played and the same number of points on the board.
From the kick off Newton Stewart had a brief period on top and in the 19th minute they kicked a penalty.
Accies were quickly back into their stride with rampaging runs from Kenneth Beattie, Graeme Simpson, Adam Taylor, Fabio Marchetti and Andy Jackson, note all forwards, any of which could have resulted in tries if it was not for some heroic tackling from Newton Stewart and a propensity to give away penalties when the ball went to the ground.
In the 32nd minute the scoring continued. Stephen O’Donnell stole a ball at the base of the scrum. He made ground before releasing it to Andy Jackson who was backing up. A defender partially stopped him but his little pop up pass found Stewart Smith steaming up on his inside and he stormed over under the posts for a try converted by O’Donnell.
24-3.
There was plenty more action before half time but no more scores.
This was as good a half of rugby that Accies have played all season. Rampaging forwards who seemed to have gained confidence from their performance against Hawick YM and backs that ran straight and at full speed. Few passes were dropped and the pace of the half never halted. The interesting thing was that Chris McLellan called off late on with flu and he was the pick of the forwards last week. Chris Wright came into the back row and Adam Taylor moved up. Effectively Accies had two open side flankers but with the style of the half this was to their advantage.
The Accies support were hoping for more of this in the second half and had only 4 minutes to wait before Graeme Simpson finished off a bout of handling by scoring under the posts. Again O’Donnell converted for 31-3.
Slowly but surely Newton Stewart got back into the match. They slowed the Accies attacks down and succoured Accies into trying to take them on up front. Accies tried this even in their own half but time and again got driven back and had to defend their line against rucks and mauls. Fortunately their defence was watertight. When they did break free too often big forwards romped away with the ball but failed to look at the options outside them and went to ground. The game was beginning to peter out to an anticlimax until Ali McLaren came on and brought it back to life. He set up a good chance on the right for Craig Wright but the fullback, now playing centre, unselfishly fed it out to Mike Hermes who finished it with style and his hatrick. It was great to see Mike back in full flow and it only needs to get the ball to him in space and he delivers.
There have been a lot of changes in personnel in the Accies team this season and a number of players have made the odd appearance and disappeared but it now seems to have settled. Craig Wright has slotted nicely into the fullback role vacated when Brad Bell returned to America, Stewart Seaton a recruit from Perthshire RFC can play wing or centre and looks to be a good prospect and Jamie Williamson who seems to have been around for ages is a powerful centre in defence and a strong attacker. Up front Kenneth Beattie is making good progress and Adam Taylor and Chris McLellan are excellent additions to the pack. We still have to rely on older stalwarts from time to time and Ross Chassels never lets us down. He played on the wing on Saturday and had a number of runs down the left touchline and defended stoutly.
Last season Accies came on to a really good game in the second half of the season can we do the same again this year?
Tom Cullen is back from suspension next week, Dougie Horne and Jack Walker are making good progress from long term injuries and Fraser Cameron may have less family and business commitments. So the future looks quite rosy.
There will be a big test on Friday evening when Accies go across the fence to play GHK under the Old Anniesland lights for the David Gilmore trophy. The kick off is at 7-15 and we need a big support.
GHK are going well and although they are in the league below it will still be a tough encounter.

This article was originally posted on 6-Feb-2011, 07:49 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 6-Feb-2011, 08:26.