Saturday 12 April, 2008

Glensburgh Park

National Divison 2

GRANGEMOUTH STAGS RFC 18 - 25 GLASGOW ACCIES RFC

It was back to league business on Saturday as the Stags welcomed fellow strugglers Glasgow Accies to Glensburgh.  Accies opened brightly with a break from the scrum by the number 8 which was halted on the 22 by good home defence. Grangemouth then took control of the game and Forbes was short with a long range penalty after 6 minutes. Soon after turnover ball allowed Mcintyre to break and good hands by Campbell and Gibb took play into the visitors 22.

The play broke down with a penalty conceded for a ruck infringement. The opening score came after 13 minutes when a series of drives allowed Gibb to skip over in the corner for an unconverted try. Grangemouth seemed well on top at this stage and Mcintyre made another good break. However against the run of play Accies scored a try. Some weak tackling by the Stags allowed the centre to break through and feed the full back for an easy converted try. Shortly after the Stags fell further behind as the backs were offside allowing Accies to convert the penalty. Grangemouth were lucky not to fall further behind after losing a lineout and further missed tackles allowed the stand off to break.

At this point Taylor limped off to be replaced by young Tom Chapman. Accies were then reduced to 14 when the flanker was sin binned for repeated ruck offences. The half ended with Forbes hitting the post from a fairly easy penalty attempt. Half time 5 – 10

The opening 20 minutes of the second half all belonged to the home side. After just 2 minutes Gibb scored his second try as he stepped over from 20 metres. Once again the kick was missed. Grangemouth pressed on and Forbes chased a kick ahead to tackle the winger in the 22. Accies were then again reduced to 14 with a further sin bin for illegal play at the breakdown and this time Sonny Campbell slotted the penalty to give the Stags the lead. This was short lived as Accies hit back with 3 trys in 10 minutes. First the visiting stand off twisted over after good interplay by the backs. Soon after another break by the centre was halted in the corner by a fine tackle by McPherson. However from the lineout the pack drove over for another unconverted try. With 10 minutes left the visitors secured the bonus point when the right winger ran up the wing to score. Once again the kick was missed.

The Stags continued to push for a score and were rewarded when Tucker was given the try from a tap penalty despite not grounding the ball. The final whistle came soon after to leave the Stags with only the bonus point from all their efforts.

The news that Caithness had managed to win away from home leaves the Stags needing 15 points from their last 4 games to avoid relegation to National 3.