Hills fail to match impressive County

Jan 14 2009 by Alan Rennie, Stirling Observer Wednesday

ANY festive excesses were power washed out of the systems of Stirling County’s players in this friendly played in atrocious weather conditions on Saturday.

It was a very useful exercise, providing comeback games after the enforced absence through injury of Tim Clarke, Garry Mountford, Bruce McFarlane and Wilba Davies.

All three came through this test with flying colours.

Equally pleasing was the return in a County jersey of Scotland 7s player Ben Addison, now back for the remainder of the season after working down in England for much of last year.

Hooker Andy Simpson had his best-ever 1st XV game in the unenviable task of trying to replace skipper Alex Moffat.

However, for me the most encouraging display of all came from teenage centre Danny Gilmour. He played a blinder after replacing the injured David Lyle in 25 minutes, scoring two tries and setting up a third.

County played with the howling wind and rain at their backs in the first half but led just 12-0 at the turn. Often it’s easier said than done in such conditions but County should have kicked more in the first half and trapped Hills into errors in their own half.

As it was, County played a very lateral handling game lacking in penetration. This in turn led them to attempt to over-elaborate, an option that produced a rash of handling errors that were so predictable in the shocking conditions.

It took 20 minutes for County to score, the try coming from stand-in skipper Colin Eadie who found himself unexpectedly in open prairie and he ran in a try from 30 yards’ range.

County’s second try came just before the break when Jonny Hope conjured up some rugby magic when spread-eagling the visitors’ defence with two outrageous dummies before leaving his opposing full-back flat-footed with a third.

Hills must have been fancying their chances in the second half with the wind at their backs but Danny Gilmour changed all that after just two minutes.

He made a super break out of his own 22 and the move was carried forward by Brian Archibald and Ross Aitken before Gilmour himself finished it off.

Hills then mounted a spell of pressure on the Stirling line but they must have realised the writing was on the wall for them when Jonny Hope made a brilliant tackle in the shadow of the posts when a try looked inevitable.

And the Hills’ shoulders collectively drooped when County brought on replacements of the calibre of Ben Addison, Roland Reid and Craig Deacons.

It didn’t take long for Edinburgh pro Roly Reid to make an impact, his half-break producing an opening that Danny Gilmour sped into and touched down with panache.

Just before the end, Gilmour repaid the compliment, carving open the Hills defence and passing to Reid. The strongman winger still had a bit to do but he stepped round the remaining Hills defence which, by that stage, was looking decidedly the worse for wear.

Scorers: tries - Eadie, Hope, Gilmour 2, Reid; convs - Archibald 3.

Stirling County – J Hope; G Lindsay, D Lyle, B Archibald, R Aitken; R McGowan, A Robertson; M Hunter, A Simpson, W Davies, B McFarlane, G Gilchrist, C Eadie, T Clarke and J Hill. Reps (all used) – G Mountford, B Addison, R Reid, D Gilmour, C Deacons and J Hutton.

Hilhead-Jordanhill – G Twaddle; D Mitchell, R Williamson, D Paterson, N Campbell; C McCulloch, D Armstrong; S Longwell, S McMillan, D Walker, C Tulloch, D Fisken, C Hogg, S Ross and D Pitkethly. Reps – M Martin, E Ryder, S Rose and M Martin.

Referee– Charles Samson, Howe of Fife RFC.

Stirling County RFC is grateful for the support of main sponsors Simpsopn Donald and Ondeo Industrial Solutions.

Five-point wins for Hawks in their last two games mean that this Saturday’s visit to Stirling by the Glasgow club is virtually a relegation decider.

Kick-off is at 3pm and County president John Clarke is hoping for a large and noisy home support.

If Stirling were to lose, clawing back what would be an 11 or 12-point lead for Hawks with just five matches left would start to look like mission impossible.

On the other hand, if Stirling win with a bonus point, then the battle to escape the drop is wide open again, although you sense that County would have to win all their remaining games.

The 2nd XV sneaked a 19-18 league win over Aberdeen GSFP at Bridgehaugh on Saturday, a result that will put them back on top of the table although Heriot’s will have a game in hand. The 2nd XV also entertain Hawks this Saturday at home on league business.