“Cometh the hour, cometh the man…”
 
As all players, former players and coaches know there are times when you really need your experienced players to step up, take pressure off the inexperienced and guide the team to victory.
Today was that day for Stephen O’Donnell, the day was rank, pouring rain from 6am onwards, a potentially deflating result for Scotland and a young Cameron McCall partnering him at half back who will not have experienced the fire that Ayrshire sides can bring to the table.
 
Irvine were today’s opponents, lying second top in the league and always a handful, it was going to be a tough examination of Accies new look youthful team, still denied Captain Stu Smith but with Vice Captain Andy Jackson back after injury.
 
The game started and finished in the rain which made handling and even running difficult as the ball slipped, like the proverbial bar of soap, and feet gave way in the sodden turf but it was Accies who opened the scoring after 7 minutes via the boot of Stephen O’Donnell.
 
Irvine didn’t come up the M77 just to make up the numbers and with former Hawk – Tony Wright in the boiler room of the pack, they thrust back at Accies with their Stand-off, Danyl Davies, looking very dangerous when counter attacking from deep and he was Irvine’s stand out player of the day. Indeed one such thrust, from his own 10m line took Danyl to Accies line, how Irvine didn’t score is still a mystery to this scribe but the scramble cover eventually snuffed out the opportunity.
 
Accies survived and cranked up the pressure, both in attack and in defence as they harried and pressurised Irvine into hurried clearance’s and loose passes and the first, and only try came after 26 minutes following a superb backs move that saw the ball move through the hands (right to left), then inside and out and the try hungry Mike Hermes popped up on the outside of the “wrong” wing to take the pass and burst over form 10m out with Stephen O’Donnell converting from the touchline.
 
10 – 0 Half Time
 
The second half was a continuim of the first as Accies kept up the defensive pressure on Irvine, high up the field, and harried them into multiple errors and a late tackle on Andy Jackson saw Chippy add the three points. 13 – 0
 
The pattern was, in effect, set. A try fest was unlikely in the rain deluge but Accies’ upfront defence and solid territory based plan in the rain paid dividends as Chippy gorged himself on two more penalty kicks and plenty of box kicks to turn the chunky Irvine pack back down the field whenever they drove upfield.
 
Irvine are, in this scribes view, a good team but had a bad day at the office. Maybe they felt the suffering of Scotland from this morning…, this scribe puts it down to a pretty upfront performance by Accies’ pack, in the scrum, the lineout and the loose that put pressure all the way through the Irvine team as slow ball lead to Accie defenders being “in their face”. Panic kicks and loose passes were the order of the day in the Irvine camp and finally to a mature performance from Stephen O’Donnell, at scrum half, turning Irvine’s pack with box kicks, giving good ball to the backs when it was on and kicking the goals when asked…
 
Full Time: Accies 19 – Irvine 0
 
Man of the Match: Stephen O’Donnell for his points tally, but Andy Jackson was truly inspirational as the stand in captain and ran him close following yet another all action performance.

This article was posted on 1-Oct-2011, 19:51 by Hugh Barrow.