County cup run is over

Apr 10 2009 by Alan Rennie, Stirling Observer Friday

THE curtain came down on County’s 15-a-side season with a dull thump on Wednesday night.

It was a case of “deja vu all over again” as this Stirling side frustrated their fans with only occasional glimpses of the quality rugby of which they are capable.

In what proved coach Ian Jardine’s last game in charge, you would have expected his troops to make a storming start in their bid for a quarter-final tie at Selkirk.

But County made no impact at all in the early stages, apart from getting on the wrong side of referee James Matthew.

After 25 minutes they were 13-0 down, slack defence contributing to the two unconverted tries and a penalty by Accies.

There was a boost for Stirling when long-haired lock Ed Stuart limped off with an ankle injury in the 27th minute. He had been causing mayhem at the breakdown, too easily plucking ball right out of County hands.

At long last County began to get some continuity into their play. However, poor handling again proved their undoing and it was sheer frustration that led to them giving away another penalty for full-back Stewart Walker in the 38th minute.

At least they were competing, however, and, just before half-time a moment of madness by flanker Robin Snape saw him kick a prostrate County player.

Penalty! A yellow card for Snape and a welcome, long-distance kick by Brian Archibald make the interval score 16-3.

The large contingent of travelling County fans looked forward to the restart, when their team would be playing with the slope and a light wind in their favour against a short-handed Accies pack.

Their optimism was rewarded right at the beginning with a glorious County try. Young Jason Hill had made first inroads in the Edinburgh defence with a typical charge but it was Ben Addison’s cute, flipped pass that opened everything up for Graham Lindsay to score.

That pulled the score back to 16-10 and a revival looked on the cards, especially as Accies were also missing the influence of stand-off Ruairidh Bonner, sidelined with an injury.

However, such hopes proved short-lived. More half-hearted tackling was exploited by winger Matt Coupar, so often the scourge of County sides, and his zigzagging run to the line again put the home side in easy street.

Snape returned to the fray for Accies from the sin-bin but he was then replaced there by County’s Garry Mountford for a penalty offence, further punished by Walker’s kick which made it 24-10.

Ian Jardine reshuffled his side, Robbie McGowan being moved to stand-off with Archibald to centre instead of Stevie Wilson and sub Gregor Brodie playing at full-back.

There was a lot of huffing and puffing, lots of handling errors, a yellow card for Accies sub Phil Jenkinson and even a super try by Brian Archibald after more good work by Addison in the build-up.

Archibald’s conversion with three minutes to go meant that another converted score would have pushed this tie into extra-time. It wasn’t to be, however, and County’s season ended with yet another “if only” scenario.

Scorers: Accies - tries Oliphant, Campbell, Coupar; pens Walker 3. County - tries Lindsay, Archibald; convs Archibald 2; pen Archibald.

EDINBURGH ACCIES: S Walker; M Coupar, P Loudon, I Berthinussen, J Oliphant; R Bonner, M Campbell; N Lah, M Price, A Marsh, E Stuart, G Campbell, R Snape, T Drennan and D Teague. Reps - P Burns, P Jenkinson, M Strachan and J Pecquard.

STIRLING COUNTY: R McGowan; G Lindsay, B Addison, S Wilson, R Aitken; B Archibald, G McRorie; M Hunter, J Graham, G Mountford, B McFarlane, G Gilchrist, T Clark, C Eadie and J Hill. Reps - C Adam, R Logan, K Bryce and G Brodie.

Referee: James Matthew (Fettes College).

County have a team in the Melrose Sevens, which will be televised on BBC, at The Greenyards tomorrow (Saturday).

They are playing Barrhaven Scottish, from Ottowa in Canada, in the second round.

In charge of the County sevens squad is Graeme Young, the 2nd XV backs coach, who is going to take over from head coach Ian Jardine next season.