REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE EXTRAVAGANZA AGAINST PERTHSHIRE

GHA RFC MATCH 223: GHA RFC 66 – 7 PERTHSHIRE RFC 

2011/2012: Scottish Premiership Three

This looked like it was going to be a tight game for the first 15 minutes with Perthshire coming out firing and enjoying good spells of posession inside the GHA half. During this period, Perthshire had two long range penalty opportunities at goal however both were missed. The GHA defense stood firm though and on the 15 minute mark, Houston opened the scoring with a penalty for the home side.

The first try began with a scrum on the GHA 22m line. The ball was worked up field through two phases before a half break and offload from Jamie Pinder put McClymont clear who drew the last defender to put O’Hare in for the score. Houston converted.

Houston then scored a try for himself when he picked and ran blind side from a scrum 5 metres out, running across field before dummying to the outside and then stepping into the gap.

The GHA scrum was dominant all afternoon and the next score came from a scrummage against the head on the Perthsire 22. The ball was spun from right to left before McClymont neatly fed O’Hare on his inside who cantered in for this second of the afternoon. The 4th try and bonus point followed soon after when Pinder, who was playing at 8, scored from a push over scrum.

The 5th score was an excellent team try. From a line out on the Perthsire 22, the ball was worked from left to right with some great offloads before McClymont broke though down the right hand touch line and went over in the corner.

Half time score was 30 – 0 to GHA.

The second half started as the first ended, with GHA in control and dominating the set pieces and Perthsire struggling to deal with GHA’s offloading and support play.

The 1st score of the second period came from a line out on the Perthsire 22. A catch and drive followed by some quick forward phases created quick ball for the backs but a wayward miss pass looked to have killed the momentum until McClymont produced a clever flick pass between his legs to the winger Binnie who then neatly interchanged with the other winger Gillman before Pinder recieved an offload out of the tackle to score his second of the afternoon. Houston converted.

A quick tap and go on the Perthsire 40m line led to the next score. The ball was worked from the left to right hand touchline through several phases before it was whipped back left and shipped along the line to O’Hare who was tackled just short in the left hand corner. However, quick ball was then fed inside to Henderson who’s flat run scythed through the Pertshire defense for the try. Houston converted.

Perthsire then broke their duck with a driven line out on the GHA 5m line. They were initially held up short but controlled the ball for several pick and go phases before eventually forcing their way over for the try which was then converted.

GHA’s next score came from another scrum against the head, this time on the half way line. Gillman who was now at scrum half, picked and went blind side then fed Tane Jericevich who had replaced Dominic Dunn at fly half. Jericevich put a neat grubber through for the winger who was just short of scoring in the corner. GHA retained posession however and the ball was spun from left to right for another replacement, 18 year old John Brogan who scored down the right hand side. Jericevich converted.

A quick tapped penalty inside the GHA half led to a break from Gillman who was tackled on the Perthsire 22. The ball was worked though several phases up the blind side before Adam Barnett rumbled over for the try.

From the ensuing restart, GHA went on the attack once more. Jamie Auld made the initial break before the ball was worked left to McClymont who was tackled mid way into the Perthsire half. The ball was then spun right to Auld once more who found himself on the right wing this time but was well tackled by the Perthire cover defense. Gillman then fed O’Hare who broke though to score his hat trick.

A third scrum aganist the head, this time on the Perthsire 22, was picked up by Gillman who darted up the blind side before feeding Binnie to score on the left hand corner and complete the scoring.

Although this was an overall excellent performance from GHA, there were still plenty of areas to work on and they will have to raise the performance level significantly as they travel to league leaders Dumfries next week who have gone 10 games unbeaten since GHA defeated them on the opening day of the season.

Source: Bill McMurtrie