Match Report v Ross High

GHK took the elements in the first half, playing down hill and with the wind, at sunny old Tranent.

Just after the start Rory Love got the ball in good position and failed to beat the opposition, oh the visiting crowd wish he had a side step in his repertoire. GHK were awarded a penalty in the Ross High 22 and it was comfortably converted by Andy Fleming. 0 – 3.

Ross High had trouble with their restart kick with the home side players running from an offside position. At the scrum GHK were awarded a penalty on halfway just at the limit of Fleming’s range, missed attempt! Poor restart again by home team and scrum on 22 metre line, penalty for ruck infringement on 10 metre line led to GHK lineout on halfway line. Good second phase possession and bringing by forwards including Cammy Maclay who had to leave the park with an injured knee, replaced by Fergus Leggat.

In the first 22 minutes of the match GHK probably had circa 65% of possession and pressure but failed to convert into points due to handling errors and a slight over eagerness to move the ball. This pressure led to us being camped in the Ross High half for a good bit of the half, however conceding 3 penalties and we were back in our own half. At halfway Fleming took the ball and broke through the home side defence, backed up by Danny Hoffman in support, off loading to Adam McLay to score, converted by Fleming 0 - 10.

At the next kick off D’Arcy took a fine ball on the run and made perhaps 35 yards at a gallop, our possession forced Ross High to concede a penalty in front of the posts. Another easy effort from Fleming. 0 – 13. Another penalty was awarded to us after 35 minutes however we missed, Ross High kicked up to the 35 metre mark and kicked to touch. Ross High were penalised again for offside but the attempt missed, score at half time 0 – 13.

The second half stared with Ross High kicking downfield to our 22. Our scrum was turned over and the home side drove the ball up field via the forwards to score a try which was converted 7 – 13. The Ross High centre was sin binned and the score changed to 7 – 16 from the penalty. Another good period of possession took us back towards the opposition half. Rory Love showed that you don’t need to sidestep if you have pace, by skinning the defence to score, a try converted to make the score 7 – 23.

GHK took play up into the home side half and having signalled advantage the referee awarded a penalty without allowing advantage to be played. In the lineout 7 metres from the Ross High line we lost possession who kicked downfield but dead and the referee pulled play back to the 5 metre line in the Ross High half. A kick upfield bounced well for Fleming who scored and converted 7 – 30.

Another good period of pressure in the opposition 22 led to Darcy scoring and against the trend to do a swallow dive he chucked the ball high in the air to celebrate. In the final period of play the home side exerted pressure down in our 22 and from broken play (was the sub offside?)the ball was turned over and a converted try scored. Final score 14 – 37 a great result.

Good performance from a team who won convincingly without firing on all cylinders.

The Pres(& minibus driver!)

This article was originally posted on 21-Feb-2011, 22:41 by Lindsay Kerr.
Last updated by Lindsay Kerr on 21-Feb-2011, 22

This article was posted on 21-Feb-2011, 23:24 by Hugh Barrow.