Stewartry 8 Glasgow Accies 22
Another Good Away Win
On a bright sunny November Accies travelled to their friendly foes Stewartry. Overhead conditions were fantastic however they were a little wet underfoot with the last few weeks of rain.
Accies started the match brightly looking to make amends for their last league game defeat to Glens and were keen to move the ball around.
Accies first score came around the 10mins mark when after the forwards produced good quick ball it allowed Jamie Doig to slice through the Stewartry midfield. Some slick handling between Doig and Stewart Smith created space for no. 8 Jack Walker to waltz in under the posts for a try which was converted by Stephen O’Donnell.
0-7
For most of the first half the recurring theme was for Accies to create a scoring chance but for poor decision making, individual mistakes and some great Stewartry defence they could not increase their lead. Stewartry spurred on by this began to get themselves into the game with some aggressive forward play and late on in the first half clawed back three points with a well struck penalty.
3-7
On the stroke of halftime Stewartry again were putting pressure on the Accies defence and were rewarded with a well taken try which was not converted.
Halftime Score
Stewartry 8 Accies 7
Accies began the second half as they had the first exerting a lot of pressure on an already tiring Stewartry team. Accies were dominating both the scrums and lineouts and causing the Stewartry backline problems with their evasive backs.
A reshuffle in the pack due to an injury to Jack Walker saw Graeme Simpson come off the bench for his first appearance of the season. Simpson added his wealth of experience to an already dominant pack which allowed Accies to crank up the tempo even more.
Some great probing kicks by Accies young standoff Cameron McCall kept the pressure on Stewartry and it was surely only a matter of time before Accies scored.
After some fine Accies play they were awarded a kickable penalty which O’Donnell kicked to regain the lead for Accies.
8-10
With around twenty minutes remaining most of the game was being played in the Stewartry half with Accies yet again creating a lot of half chances but being unable to convert.
However after several phases in the Stewartry 22 the ball found itself in Simpson’s hands some 5 metres from the try line. (He’ll say 15 metres) With some clever footwork Simpson evaded the first tackle and as he was tackled by the cover defence he managed to stretch for the line for Accies second try which was converted by O’Donnell.
8-17
With their tails up Accies desperately chased for more points with young winger Andrew Brown looking dangerous every time he had his hands on the ball.
Stewartry also sensed they could take something from the game and were trying to move the ball at every opportunity. On one of these moves Accies prop Matt Franklin made a thunderous hit which resulted in the ball being spilled. After a hack along the ground the ball was picked up by Smith who scorched in from 20 metres (he’ll say 50 metres) to score in the corner. Conversion missed.
8-22
With minutes now remaining Accies chased for that elusive bonus point try however with some good Stewartry defence the match finished with no more scoring.
At times Accies produced some good quality rugby and with being so dominant in the set piece should really have won this game at a canter. However with numerous poor/strange decisions and individual errors in the final third of the pitch Accies look a bit like the stuttering National team that don’t seem to be able to turn pressure into points. This is an area they will really need to concentrate on as when playing against the better teams in league they cannot afford to miss chance after chance.
On a plus there were some good solid performances from the returning Simpson, Walker and McCall which bodes well for the future. It should also be noted that Accies have now won four away from home this season where as they only managed one away victory last season.
Next up is a home fixture verses Newton Stewart on 12 Nov 2011 with a 2pm kick off.

This article was posted on 6-Nov-2011, 17:33 by Hugh Barrow.