West home in on County errors

Jan 28 2009 by Alan Rennie, Stirling Observer Wednesday

THE 53-3 thrashing at Bridgehaugh last October certainly flattered West but, if anything on Saturday, the tight scoreline flattered County.

It was back to the same old story for Stirling. They huffed and puffed during the first half, scored one stunning try, and fully deserved a 13-5 interval lead.

However, West upped their effort from the restart and County went to pieces, conceding 18 points in an error-strewn display and scoring just one penalty.

While that was happening, Hawick beat Currie at home for their third consecutive win but, thankfully, the other main relegation rivals, Glasgow Hawks, lost at Melrose.

Hawks and Hawick meet in Glasgow this Saturday and County fans will be hoping for either a Hawick win or a low-scoring draw.

Pressured

County opened on a squelchy Burnbrae pitch as though they meant business and, within two minutes, they pressured West into conceding a penalty which Brian Archibald, at fly-half in the absence of Robbie McGowan (Scotland under-20 duties), stroked over.

Ben Addison imposed his authority in midfield with a crunching tackle on full-back Sim.

County scorned an overlap chance to blindside wing Ross Aitken in 14 minutes, shipping the ball the other way but there was some consolation when Archibald snapped over a neat dropped goal.

West hadn’t been in the game at all but they shocked Stirling a minute later when left wing Dalgleish ran past half a dozen flapping County arms before delivering a scoring pass for centre Jamie Hunter.

This seemed to panic Stir-ling and even acting skipper Colin Eadie seemed affected. In the middle of a promising attack, he passed the ball straight into a West player’s arms and was grateful for another good tackle by Ben Addison.

Just before the half-hour, County showed what they are capable of by scoring a super try from first phase scrummage ball near the centre spot.

They had split the backs with just Danny Gilmour and Graham Lindsay on the right. A quick pass to the classy Gilmour gave him the space to glide past the West defence and slip a pass for Lindsay’s run-in try from just outside the 22.

From then until half-time, County had various chances to score but they squandered them all, even when they had a numerical advantage while second rower Jan Vos was sin-binned.

Opting for an attacking line-out rather than kicking a fairly straight-forward penalty chance was another moment which, with the wonderful benefit of hindsight, can be judged a mistake.

West coach John Beattie was seen to berate his players at half-time, especially the forwards, but how they responded!

Never-ending

A strangely subdued Stirling were hardly in the game at all after the turn. My notebook details only the West scores and a never-ending flow of unforced County errors.

The Hamish Logan Memorial Trophy was handed over to the West captain David Young after the game, prompting talk that this will have been one of the very rare occasions, if ever, that West have won the trophy twice in one season.

I struggled to find a Stirling man of the match and eventually opted for Danny Gilmour for that shining moment of brilliance in the first half.

Gilmour got two votes as did Grant Gilchrist and there was one vote apiece for Bruce McFarlane, Wilba Davies and Mark Hunter.

The president’s casting vote gave it to young Gilchrist.

Scorers: West - tries - McLaren 2, Hunter; conv - Davis; pens - Davis 2. Stirling - try - Lindsay; conv - Archibald; pens - Archibald 2; dropped goal - Archibald.

West of Scotland – M Sim; A Park, L Menzies, J Hunter, R Dalgleish; C Davis, C Duck; J Welsh, D McKenna, E McLaren, A Kennedy, J Vos, D Young, R Grant and G Fisken. Reps - A Hunter, S Carmichael, J Walker, C Morrison and K Mathieson.

Stirling County – J Hope; G Lindsay, B Addison, D Gilmour, R Aitken; B Archibald, G Calder; M Hunter, J Graham, W Davies, B McFarlane, G Gilchrist, C Eadie, T Clarke and C Deacons. Reps - G Mountford, K Bryce. J Hill, A Auld (all used) and C Black.

Referee – Cammy Rudkin, Hawick.

Stirling County RFC is grateful to main sponsors Simpson Donald and Ondeo Industrial Solutions.

Melrose come calling to Bridgehaugh this Saturday, kick-off 3pm. See Friday’s edition for the latest team news.