allanglens

On a day made for glorious open running and free flowing rugby, the new look Grangemouth side failed to spark against what can best be described as one of the poorer teams in this league.

The stags kicked off with the wind at their backs and proceeded to mount serious pressure on the Glens defence where the forward pack were being dominant, however, all too often mistakes crept in at the crucial stages allowing Glens to clear their lines.

For all their possession and territorial domination the Stags were only rewarded with two penalties in the 1st 38 minutes of the match. The ever young Johnny Campbell contrived to miss a straight forward kick but made amends with a tremendous touchline penalty.

It took until the 38th minute for the visitors defence to be breached and it was a result of some clever interplay between Campbell and Spence which saw Campbell draw the defence onto him only to pop the ball to the charging Spence who had hit the line at an angle to slice open the defence and score. Campbell missed the extras to leave the half time score at 10-0 to the Stags and the home support were excited about a win.

The second half started well with Grangemouth continuing the pressure from the 1st half although this time their ability to shoot themselves in the foot was all too evident as they regularly kicked away possession or turned over possession. It was from one such mistake in the opposition half that led to a turn over and charge down the pitch into the home 22 where they recycled the ball out wide but failed to score.

From the resultant lineout the ball was moved to the Glens standoff who waltzed through the home pack to score out wide, the extras being missed. This sparked the home side back into life and they started to hold onto the ball for a few phases leading to a 1st ever 1st XV try for Brian Johnston who was on hand to drive over from 5 yards after some excellent driving by Gillanders. Campbell struck over the conversion from the touchline to leave Grangemouth leading 15 – 5 and all was bright.

Almost immediately from kick off, a loose clearance kick saw the impressive sunning Glens stand off catch the ball on the half way and then deftly jink through a number of despairing tackles to score near the uprights. Amazingly the extras were missed.

This left for an intense final 15 minutes where the home side nerves were obvious as they attempted to protect the lead. More turnovers took place which left the home fans with little in the way of finger nails at the end.

The stags held out for the final whistle and were delighted to get the league campaign off to a winning start in the knowledge that much work has to be done on the training ground if they want to be competitive in this league.

This week the 1st XV are away to Howe of Fife who won away to Linlithgow last week. They will prove a much harder nut to crack. Kick off is at 3pm. The 2nd XV is at home to Edinburgh University 3rd XV in league business, kick off 3pm.