Sat 6th February 2010

Glenrothes 10 – GHA 24

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Due to the recent cold snap, pitch conditions were treacherous and so this tie was moved to the pitch at Buckhaven High School.

The match could not have started better for GHA, as straight from the kick off our flying winger, Rory Hughes, caught the ball and weaved his way past 4 Glenrothes defenders. This led to a series of rucks. Calum Shields picked up from the last of these and powered his way over the line leaving 2 more Glenrothes players trailing in his wake. Davy Scott duly popped the conversion over to put GHA 7-0 after only 3 minutes play.

With 15 mins gone a charged down kick led to the ball being fed along the GHA backline and from 25m out Rory used his pace and strength to beat several Glenrothes defenders and score GHA’s 2nd try. Unfortunately the conversion was missed leaving us 12-0 in front.

Over the next 20mins play raged from end to end with neither team taking control of the match and the half fizzled out with GHA still 12-0 to the good.

After 8mins of the 2nd half Glenrothes were awarded a penalty within kicking distance after GHA were penalised for holding on after the tackle. The kick was narrowly missed but the signs were ominous that our discipline was beginning to show cracks and Andy Mather was shown a yellow card, consigning him to 10mins in the sin bin, for a body check on the advancing Glenrothes player after he had kicked forward. A series of penalties for Glenrothes followed with the one closest to the GHA line being kicked over to give the home team 3 points and hope, especially with the man advantage..

A great surging run from Ben Thomson from deep inside our own half led to a sweet move involving Craig Williamson who showed great pace and strength to surge into the opposing 22. Unfortunately his pass was spilled by Gordon Belch when a try looked more likely and Glenrothes recovered. The Glenrothes scrum half put in a great box kick which both David Scott and Gordon Belch left for each other and the Glenrothes full back took full advantage to take the ball and score underneath the posts. With the resultant conversion kicked over the GHA boys were looking somewhat ragged. So after 13 mins of the second half played it was now Glenrothes 10 GHA 12 and it looked game on as the opposition surged in confidence.

With 17mins of the 2nd half gone an altercation between Rory and one of the Glenrothes players resulted in a yellow card for each. Soon after Andy Mather returned to the fray and evened up the sides. This seemed to spark the GHA back into a positive frame and after some superb forward play David Scott ran through for our 3rd try. With the conversion kick missed the score was now 17-12 for GHA.

With confidence now seeping through the GHA squad a darting run from David Scott put us deep into the opposing half. He fed the ball to Kelso Brown who in turn popped the ball up to Josh Rutnagur who duly dove over the line for the best try of the match. Davy dusted himself down and promptly put the conversion between the posts from a tight angle to make the score 24-10 for GHA.

With 10mins to go we still had time for another Glenrothes player to be given a yellow card and for Davy Scott to miss a penalty. With no further scoring the game ended Glenrothes 10 GHA 24.

This was a hard fought victory from a very young side – the squad was made up of 5 under 18’s, 13 under 17’s and 2 boys not yet 16. With better discipline and less back chat this team could be a match for any of the other 7 team left in the competition. There were a number of star performers with the pick of the forwards being Calum Hunter, Adam Barnett and Kelso Brown and great performances from Josh Rutnagur, Davy Scott and Francesco di Cosmo in the backs but the Coaches thought the GHA man of the match was Nick McCaw

Squad

Forwards

Craig Williamson, Tom Ritchie, Andy Mather, Calum Hunter, Adam Barnett, Nick McCaw, Calum Shields and Ross Carty

Backs

Josh Rutnagur, David Scott, Francesco Di Cosmo, Gordon Belch, Rob McLintock, Rory Hughes & Ben Thomson

Replacements

Kelso Brown, Johnnie Haughney, Euan MaCallum, Brendan Barrett & Fraser Hamilton

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