Old Anniesland was cold but dry with a stiff breeze for this encounter and GHK started strongly, got into the 22 and after a quick penalty Craig McPhee shrugged off 3 tackles to score in the corner for 5-0. Newton Stewart came back into the game and several sloppy penalties given away by GHK stuck play at the half way line. Good running by Davy Reed set our backs off and Sean Murray scored in the corner and Davy converted well for 12-0. Newton Stewart again came back at us and forced a scrum 5 from which they drove us over for a try and conversion to narrow the score to 12-7.
GHK then upped their performance and generated quick ball which led to a tap penalty by Mike Aird who danced past 2 players and popped to Gordy Reid to score and the conversion was good for 19-7. GHK were now running everything but silly penalties and over ambitious passes let Newton Stewart off the hook. However a break by Callum Ruxton, passing to Sean Murray then Adam Maclay and Rory Love raced into score an unconverted try for 24-7. However Newton Stewart finished the half strongly and drove over for an unconverted try for 24-12 before coming straight back and through some missed tackles scored another converted try and it was 24-19 at half time.
Having taken the foot off the gas before the break GHK now tried to regain the upper hand but it was Newton Stewart who advanced up the pitch and yet another penalty made it 24-22.Newton Stewart were now on a charge and good forwards driving led to another try but no conversion and we were now behind 24-27.
GHK were spurred into action and good direct running by Fraser Hastie and Pete Ritchie followed by the backs led to a try by Gregor Hollerin running in from 20 metres which Davy Reed converted from far out for 31-27.
The last 10 minutes were fiercely contested with a great break by Sean Murray who ran 70 m only to be tackled 15 m short of the line and Newton Stewart to regain 30 m of the hard won territory. The pressure swung from one side to the other but we held on to the final whistle and a well earned victory.

This article was originally posted on 4-Oct-2012, 14:41 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 4-Oct-2012, 14:43.