GHA 35 Kirkcaldy 12
A fine day for rugby and GHA were looking to get back to winning ways. The team suffered a very early setback when Gordon Adams their young stand off had to leave the field after coming second best in a tackle. With Ryan Miemczyk stepping in there was no drop in standards and after a period of pressure GHA went 3 nil up as Murray Houston slotted a penalty. From the re-start Ben Farrell claimed the ball and fed Rangi Jericevich who made an excellent break into the opposition half. He offloaded to Brandon Wamberg who had taken up an excellent supporting position. The fullback handed off the would-be tackler and raced in for the first score. The conversion attempt was unsuccessful.
The game settled down for a period with both teams testing each other and with Kirkcaldy missing two kickable penalties, it took until the 25 minute mark before another score was registered. Another excellent scrummage from the GHA pack allowed the ball to be fed to Andy Rushforth, who made a trademark break. With the ball being recycled quickly, Paddy Hilley was able to feed Ben Wright for his first try of the day. Again the conversation was missed.
On the half hour mark from a line-out in their own 22 the ball was fed to Andy Rushforth who carried well. From the ruck the ball was fed to Paul Harkins in space on the halfway line and once he got into his stride he had the defenders trailing in his wake. Iain Nelson was also in his wake but the old timer stayed with the youngster and was in hand to take the pass and then had the presence of mind to feed Ben Wright for his second of the game. This time Murray Houston was successful with his conversion attempt.
20 points were already accumulated but GHA were not finished just yet. A scrum on halfway was turned over by Kirkcaldy as GHA surprisingly took their foot off the pedal. As the ball was hacked through, the Kirkcaldy chasers overshot and left Ben Wright to pick up. With defenders covering across the flying winger pinned back his ear sand sprinted down the wing for his hat-trick score. Conversion was missed.
With some injuries picked up in the bruising first half Martin Dunn replaced Ben Wright and Kerr McEwan replaced Paul Harkins.
Kirkcaldy were not going to back down and came out in the second half with an even more aggressive attitude. However GHA stood up to this in the first 10 minutes and scored 2 tries to effectively take the game beyond Kirkcaldy.
Once again excellent ruck ball the ball was switched by Iain Nelson to Paddy Hilley on the blind side. He fed Ryan Miemczyk who hot stepped his way to the line. Five minutes later another excellent scrum turned over ball on the Kirkcaldy 5 metre line. An excellent pick up by number 8 David Stoddart lead to him crashing over for his first score of the season. Murray Houston converted.
With a 37 point lead GHA seemed to take their foot of the gas. With some slack play in their own 22 GHA allowed Kirkcaldy 2 scores in the last quarter of the match. This took some shine off a performance which up to this point had been quite clinical.
MOM – Joe Coffey
A game away to Forrester next week requires another good turnout at training on Tuesday and Thursday.
