Saturday 24th October 2009

Caledonia League 1

Glensburgh

Grangemouth Stags RFC 25   Ross Sutherland 14   

The Stags were at home again this week as they welcomed newly promoted Ross Sutherland to Glensburgh. Grangemouth were on the attack straight from the kick off with a break by Mncube and a kick to the corner from stand off Skipper saw Alexander held up just short. Ross Sutherland managed to clear upfield but were back on the defensive when Skipper hacked on and Mncube made a great follow up tackle on the visitors full back. Once again Ross survived but the opening score was only delayed a few minutes. From a scrum on the visitors 22 Mcfarlane picked up and drove on. The ball was moved on to Mcintyre who made in to the almost to the line and when the ball was switched back Mncube took the pass to dive over. Skipper missed the conversion. The Stags were well on top and young Tom Chapman, playing out of position at full back ,made a blindside break but ran out of support .

The second try was only delayed a few minutes when the Stags produced several phases of play before the ball was moved out to Cuthbertson on the wing who squeezed over in the corner for an unconverted try. With only 20 minutes gone the Stags scored their 3rd try when Brian Scott took the ball on at pace to crash through yhe defence and score under the posts leaving Skipper the easy conversion. Three scores up and the Stags had a firm grip on the game. However their play became a bit loose and this allowed the visitors back into yhe game. Indeed the Stags were fortunate when the young Ross Sutherland centre kicked away a 2 man overlap allowing the home side to clear. With half time approaching Scott was injured and this allowed Sonny Campbell to come on at full back.   Half time Stags 17 Ross sutherland 0

The second half started badly for the home side when the visitors scrum half made a break before feeding his cetre for a converted try under the posts. The Stags were under pressure at this point but almost scored at the other end when Mcintyre scooped up a loose pass and srt off upfield. Most of the crowd thought they were watching a slow motion replay as hr made it all the way to the opposition 22 before collapsing in a heapo . However this set up the field position for the Stags to score the bonus point try when good handling in the backs saw Cuthbertson score his second in the corner. Grangemouth increased their lead as the game entered the final quarter when McNally took over the kicking duties to land a penalty. That should have been enough for the home side to ctuise to victory. However straight from the kick off some weak tackling allowed the visitors to score another converted try. The closing 10 minutes saw Skipper miss a penalty after a late tackle on Cuthbertson and then the veteran Campbell produced one of his legendary dummies to set up Alexander who was tackled into touch just short of the line. Ross Sutherland then broke upfield and only a fine covering tackle by Mncube prevented a score.   Final score 25 - 14

This was a mixed performance by the Stags.The opening 20 minutes  saw some of the best rugby of the last few sesons to build up a commanding lead. However as in the Crieff game the coaches will be worried by the second half slump which allowed the visitors back into the game. next week the Stags travel to Stonehaven to take on Mackie.  Kick off 2pm