“Like thieves in the night….”
 
“Baldrick, I have a cunning plan…”
 
Fans of Blackadder will recognise the phrase and, looking on the bright side of life, if Accies’ cunning plan was to play grimly at times but pocket the four points, and slip away like thieves in the night, then it was job done!...
 
In reality, the weather was the winner. It was a grey, drizzly, wet day in East Kilbride as Accies came to town looking to add some flair to their performances and keep their march on the league title in-step but the weather put paid to those plans and a new “cunning plan” emerged as the game unfolded.
 
The weather, sadly, had a massive impact on the game as the ball was wet and greasy which meant that free flowing rugby was not the order of the day and a more pragmatic attitude had to be put in place with kicking for territory the de-facto option.
 
The first half was tough going on the hardy spectators as the kicking ping-pong took hold with both teams looking to establish territorial rights, a platform from which to attack and score tries but the weather and greasy ball meant spilt passes, botched lineouts, missed chances and probably a bit of frustration all round. As it was East Kilbride opened the scoring after 39 minutes when they took the penalty kick option to lead 3 – 0.
As if transformed, from the restart, EK burst into life again, a good kick upfield was loosely handled by Accies and EK were suddenly all over them sweeping from right to left and following a terrific passage of play touched down for the opening try only for it to be chalked off for a forward pass in the final pass of the move. The respite was short lived as Accies conceded a penalty after the subsequent scrum and EK slotted home the kick to lead 6 – 0.
 
There were a number of injuries (nothing serious) throughout the first half, meaning a bit of injury time, and Accies put this to good use by winning a penalty and Stephen O’Donnell gave them a lifeline to pull the score back to 6 – 3 bang on half time.
 
The second half continued in the same vein as the weather continued to dominate the proceedings but EK were growing stronger and seemed to be gaining the upper hand in a pretty attritional battle. However, when games are this tight little moments have a big significance and Stephen O’Donnell’s penalty kick to draw the scores level at 6 – 6 with 20 minutes to go looked as though it might just open the doors for Accies as they had weathered the EK storm.
 
EK weren’t for lying down though and roared back to pile pressure on Accies at scrum time, in the lineout and in the loose with some enterprising play, given the conditions. However, EK did have a tendency to give away penalties when placed under similar pressure by Accies and, having hit the bar with a kick minutes before, Stephen O’Donnell converted the final score with 4 minutes to go to clinch the game at 9 – 6 to Accies.
 
The final whistle blew, Accies’ faces smiled as the cunning plan had come to fruition, i.e. play relatively poorly but win the game and sneak off with the spoils, “Like thieves in the night….”
 
On reflection, great credit must go to the players and referee – Ken Robertson he handled the game pretty well given the conditions as it was a really tough day to play rugby and a more open game plan was stymied. At times, it looked like Accies would lose as EK seemed to have the upper hand in the second half, but the boys dug deep and found a way to win this game.
In years past Accies would’ve lost this type of game. It wasn’t pretty, they were misfiring, player selection is like a revolving door as injuries and unavailability strike, but they got the job done and found a way to win and that is a great trait to have in such a young team so only good things can lie ahead.

This article was posted on 9-Oct-2011, 10:29 by Hugh Barrow.