Stags Relinquish Midlands Bowl

Grangemouth travelled to Glenrothes last Saturday for their re-arranged Midland Bowl quarter final tie. The original game was quite correctly cancelled due to a frozen pitch and this game was also in doubt following the heavy overnight rain. However both sides agreed that despite the presence of a few puddles on the park that the game should go ahead. The Stags made a number of changes from the previous week with Denny, Jardine and Howe starting in the backs and McNab, Neill and Curran in the pack. There were also positional changes for Binnie and Ward. Grangemouth played down the Carleton Park slope in the first half and dominated the early territory and possession with Glens struggling to clear their lines. McInally missed an early penalty attempt and the forwards made ground with several impressive drives in the opening 10 minutes. However completely against the run of play it was the home side who opened the scoring. A Grangemouth drive was halted deep inside the Glens 22 and the ball was turned over. The ball was moved out to the home left winger who beat his man and won the foot race to run in from 80 metres and score in the corner. The conversion was missed. Grangemouth were unable to string the phases together in the difficult conditions and this allowed the home side to offer more of a threat in attack as the game moved into the second quarter. After a period of pressure only good defence by Jardine and Howe prevented the winger scoring in the same corner. As half time approached Glens converted a simple penalty after the Stags backs were offside. Half time Glens 8 Stags 0.

Grangemouth started the second half well as they looked to get back into the game. However again it was Glenrothes who scored next in controversial circumstances. Grangemouth moved the ball well with Herron coming into the line and making 20 metres. The ball went loose and the Glens full back kicked down field. McInally won the race back and looked to have secured the ball on the ground. However the Glens player following up dived off his feet and the ball was dislodged for the home stand off to flop over the line for the score. This time the conversion was on target. Grangemouth were back on the attack and had the chance to narrow the gap with a fairly easy penalty but decided to take a quick tap and the chance was lost. On the hour mark the home side collected their third try. The ball was moved along the back line with the fullback creating the overlap. He held on to the ball with his winger unmarked outside him and was nailed short of the line. Luckily for him the ball was recycled to allow the centre to crash over in the corner. The conversion was again successful. Grangemouth dominated the closing 15 minutes of the game but were unable to break down the home defence who rather cynically conceded numerous penalties in the red zone. There were also some dangerous and late tackles which the referee saw but failed to take further action. In the closing minutes both sides were involved in off the ball incidents and the referee finally awarded 2 yellow cards to Glens and 1 to the Stags. Full time Glens 22 Stags 0

This was a disappointing result for the Stags and means no chance of a repeat trip to Murrayfield this year. Howe had a solid game at full back and the forwards had several good driving mauls. However too often the ball was lost in contact and the chances were lost. The Stags have a break over New Year with the next game at home on 11 January against Dundee University with a 2pm KO