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Saturday 13th October 2007 Glensburgh Park National League Division 2 GRANGEMOUTH STAGS RFC 38 - 6 CAITHNESS RFC
After the disappointing results of the previous weeks, the Stags welcomed Caithness to Glensburgh with a home win a priority. The side showed six changes from the previous week with the backs looking much stronger with the return of Hayes, Gibb, Forbes and Wilson from injury and unavailability. Grangemouth dominated the early exchanges and opened the scoring with a try after 9 minutes. The forwards and backs showed good continuity from several phases of play before the ball was passed out wide to winger Gibb who rounded his man and ran under the posts to leave an easy conversion for Forbes. The second try followed quickly when from the kick off the ball was sent into touch in the Caithness 22. The visitors tapped back loose ball and skipper Mcfarlane drove through to secure possession. From the ensuing ruck, the ball went along the backline for full back Forbes to receive a pass and crash over for the try. He duly added the conversion to take the home side in to a 14-0 commanding lead.. Caithness finally scored their first points from a penalty after 15 mins when the Stags were penalised at a ruck. However Forbes restored the lead shortly after with a penalty. The visitors stand off scored a further penalty five minutes later to reduce the lead to 17-6. With five minutes left in the half the Stags scored their third try of the day, from another well worked piece of hands. McIntyre kicked ahead and unluckily fell as he chased his through ball into the dead ball area. From the drop out Gillanders fed to McFarlane who burst into the 22 before passing to Gibb for his second try which was once again converted by Forbes for a half time lead of 24 - 6.
In the second half both sides cancelled each other out and it began to look like the bonus point try would not come. With 10 minutes left Grangemouth finally exerted some pressure on a tiring defence and following a break by McIntyre the ball was passed back inside for Wilson to score under the posts. Forbes again added the conversion. The final try came from a lineout drive and a dart by Gowdie who through a dummy to score easily. Forbes converted for a 100% kicking display and a personal tally of 18 points. Grangemouth should have added a further score in the last seconds of the game with coach Busby making his debut for the club, on in the unusual position of winger. Using his ample frame, he ran over the top of an unsuspecting winger before selling three dummies to the full back. Unfortunately in his excitement and with the line at his mercy he somehow managed to drop the ball. Clearly he will have to work on his hands if he wishes to push for his place! All in all a much improved performance by the Stags and a deseved 5 point win with the bonus point secured. Again, the Grangemouth team showed a much improved discipline from last season with no cards or penalising in the game. Further, with no tries conceded, and no points in the second half, this was the performance that showed that all the hard tackling and running that has been carried out behind the scenes is beginning to bear fruit with an excellent defensive performance. Next week sees the Stags once more back on the road and heading to the borders for their third road trip to Dumfrieshire on the trot. Having come unstuck against both Newton Stewart and Stewarty, the side will be hoping that they have now learned how to play 80 minutes fromt the first whistle which has been the curse of all away trips thus far.However, after this week performance, the confidence is there to record the first away match of the campaign to add to their strong home performances. Scorers: Tries: Gibb (2), Gowdie, Forbes, Wilson Pens: Forbes Cons: Forbes (5) Team: 1. Marc Stirling 2. Billy Tulloch 3. Brian Johnstone 4. Gavin Curran 5. Steve Binnie 6. Davie McFarlane 7. Ronnie Innes
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