GHA RFC MATCH 164: GHA RFC 39 – 6 LASSWADE RFC
2008/2009: Scottish Cup 5th Round
GHA RFC |
|
LASSWADE RFC| G. Taylor | 15 | N. Murray |
| P. Hilley | 14 | N. Durie |
| N. Cassie (c) | 13 | B. Hennessy |
| A. Rushforth | 12 | M. Soutar |
| B. Wamberg | 11 | J. Carmichael |
| J. Noonan | 10 | A. Reid |
| A. Gillman | 9 | J. Elliott |
| G. Warnock | 1 | D. Robertson |
| J. Coffey | 2 | D. Turnbull |
| A. Kelly | 3 | M. Bellingham (c) |
| A. Williamson | 4 | C. Pow |
| I. Smith | 5 | S. Montgomery |
| P. Harkins | 6 | C. Quigley |
| J. Pinder | 7 | G. Brown |
| D. Chaney | 8 | D. Hearn |
| A. McCormick | 16 | R. Noble |
| R. Jenkins | 17 | R. Borthwick |
| A. Boag | 18 | P. Robinson |
| R. O’Keefe | 19 | A. Elliott |
| Hilley (2), Noonan, O’Keefe, Pinder, Williamson | Try | |
| Noonan (3) | Con | |
| Noonan | Pen | Reid (2) |
| DG | ||
| Referee | ||
| Mr R. McHenry (Dumfries) | ||
Forget the scoreline! GHA had a far closer game than the final try-count of 6-0 would suggest in the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup fifth-round game at Braidholm on Saturday.
Lasswade, though four divisions lower in the national championship, were in the game for more than an hour. The visitors scored first after less than a minute with the first of Andy Reid’s two penalty goals, GHA led only 7-6 at half-time, and it was only in the final quarter of an hour that the home stretched away from an 11-point lead by doubling their tally of tries.
Patrick Hilley scored his first try for GHA, as did Ruairi O’Keefe. Hilley went on to notch a second. Andy Williamson, Jim Noonan, and Jamie Pinder had the others, and Noonan also kicked three conversions and a penalty goal.
Williamson’s was GHA’s only first-half try, the lock sprinting away from more than 20 metres out off Noonan’s popped pass after 12 minutes. Noonan converted.
It was the only reward for GHA’s domination of the first quarter of the game. But they really ought to have made more that pressure. Not only did they squander chances, but also they came up against highly determined opposition. At times in the second quarter Lasswade took their turn to test the home defence, and in doing so they gave more than just a hint of how they had removed Jed-Forest from the Cup competition in the previous round.
Early in the second half GHA lost Geoff Warnock to the sin-bin, but still GHA failed to capitalise on pressure. Brandon Wamberg was only a fraction late in pouncing on a kick ahead before the ball crossed the dead-ball line, and Jamie Pinder was just inches away from scoring between the posts.
Eventually, Hilley’s kick and chase up the right touchline allowed GHA to stretch their lead to 14-6 in 55 minutes. Pinder, exploiting the wing’s good work, scored the try, and Noonan converted.
It was then Lasswade’s turn to suffer the sin-bin, twice in six minutes, and GHA scored immediately after each yellow card. First Noonan kicked a penalty goal, and from a later penalty the stand-off’s flat cross-kick to the right let Hilley in.
GHA lost Andy Boag to a yellow card with only a couple minutes left in normal time. That, however, unleashed a spate of tries in the five minutes left. Gregg Taylor’s perfect pass out of tackle allowed Noonan to score and convert, O’Keefe was on the field only a couple of minutes when he and Taylor cased up the left, the bounce favouring the substitute wing, and Hilley finished the entertainment by intercepting from the restart and sprinting 65 metres for his second try.
Source: Bill McMurtrie
