Saturday 22nd September

National League 2

NEWTON STEWART 27 RFC – 12 GRANGEMOUTH STAGS RFC

This weekend saw the Stags travel down to the Galloway borders coming off the back of a fine home win the previous week. Coach Derek Busby was also delighted that there was only minor tinkering required with the starting line up as he had practically a full squad to choose from.

One of the most pleasing aspects of Grangemouth this season has been their ability to start the game from the first whistle at a high tempo, but found themselves 7-0 down in the first minute. There was suspicions of ‘bus travel blues’ having endured the three and a half bus journey south with the players starting a little sluggish. Straight from the kick off, the borderers turned over the ball wide on the left and went through three rucks to touch down in the opposite corner. As their no. 9 dotted down there was many a strong cry of knock on, but the points stood while the conversion followed. Just at this point, Grangemouth were further compounded when centre Bubba Hayes pulled up with a hamstring injury and was substituted for Calum Taylor after only 5 minutes.

The wind was playing a strong part in the game with strong gusts blowing on the backs of the Newton Stewart players, with their stand off using this to great affect. Useful tactical kicking kept the Port team pegged back and unable to make any ground in the first 20 minutes, but they were still the next team to score a touch down.

From a scrum on the opponents 22, the ball was shipped wide where the Grangemouth backs had a couple of snipes at the line. Just when it seemed the momentum had broken down, up popped the veteran Ronnie Innes who burrowed over to score. Sonny Campbell was wide with the extras.

Newton Stewart were to soon restore their lead with a further try prior to the half, however, ably converted once again. The first half wound down with no further damage by either side, 14-5 to the home team.

With the second half under way, Campbell and Spencer tried to utilise the wind affect but found too many of their kicks going too deep and dead. Indeed, Newtown Stewart with local knowledge of the pitch and conditions seemed to then effortlessly move up the field in to scoring positions and added two further penalties to go 20- 5 clear. The referee at this point was having an interesting game awarding some inconsistent decisions in particular in coming through the line out, but was making calls that baffled both sets of fans in equal measures.

The borders further stretched the lead with 10 minutes to go when it seemed Grangemouth were dead certs to score. A well worked break was created with sub Taylor cutting a great angle to break the home defence and be caught short under the posts. Some solid rucks ensued with the ball moving left, and while the crowd were sure that the ball was nestled at the base of the attacking ruck, from no where up popped the Stewart no 8 who picked up and broke from under his own posts to offload on his 22 to a flying winger to score. It was a tough score to concede both on the score board and mentally.

All was not lost though and further pressure was applied for the remaining minutes of the game. Pressure was applied by the visitors with various breaks from the base of the ruck first by Billy Tulloch then Steven Binnie, until eventually the ball was recycled for Mike Gowdy to squeeze over for the consolation score. This time Campbell made no mistake with the extras, but it was all too little too late.

There was a great deal of frustration felt by the Stags after going down to a not spectacular home team, when training and home form has been so positive in the past weeks. However, there was still a few players who showed a good continuation of their form, most noticeably Roddy McPherson who showed safe hands and great awareness in a number of situations, Caine McIntyre who has considerably tightened up the midfield, and Calum Taylor, who did his cause no harm coming off the bench.

There is no doubt that on this performance the defence will be focussed on at training this week to get it back up to the level that they are showing at Glensburgh. Next weeks fixture sees the Stags at home to Highland RFC.