Students teach Stags a Lesson

Grangemouth were at home for the first match of 2014 as they welcomed the students from Dundee to Glensburgh last Saturday. The University had won the previous fixture between the sides after Grangemouth had thrown away a comfortable lead with some poor defending and overall indiscipline. The Stags made a number of changes from their last fixture before Christmas with Craig, Weir, Hind and Jack starting in the forwards and Wieczerek and Cunningham lining up in the backs. On a bright but cold afternoon it was the visitors who were first on the scoreboard after just 3 minutes. From a lineout in midfield they moved the ball wide with a huge miss pass creating space for the outside centre to race into the 22 before timing his pass to his winger for a well worked score in the corner. Grangemouth hit back and took the lead on 6 minutes. Denny and Craig made the initial runs before Skipper kicked through into the 22. Innes followed up to hack the ball over the line and outpace the cover for the score. McInally landed the difficult conversion. The lead was short lived however as on 12 minutes the University side added their second try. This time the Dundee stand off made a clean break in midfield and raced in from 50 metres for a poor defensive score. This time the conversion was on target. From the kick off the students were back on the attack and looked to have scored from a forward drive at a lineout. The referee was unsighted and the try was disallowed. Dundee continued to press and their stand off made another clean break before being tackled just short of the line. From the resulting 5 metre scrum the number 8 picked up and crashed over for another converted score. As the game entered the second quarter the home pack began to dominate the set pieces. They drove a lineout 20 metres with Hind being credited with the score. Soon after Neill took a quick tap penalty but was held up over the line. His score was only delayed as the resulting scrum was driven over the line with the number 8 collecting the touchdown. McInally added the extra 2 points to tie the scores. With half time approaching Innes made a break from deep to take play into the visitors 22. Once again the forwards were held up over the line after a lineout drive and again the scrum 5 was driven over the line for Neill to collect his second try. Half time Stags 24 Uni 19.

Having fought back from a 12 point deficit with 17 unanswered points to lead at the break the Stags started the second half strongly and dominated the opening 10 minutes. They failed to use the forward domination as they ran a tap penalty and the move broke down allowing Dundee to clear up field. A few minutes later the students collected their 4th try as their fullback burst through some poor tackling to score near the posts. The conversion was good to give the visitors the lead. With 15 minutes to go Dundee added try number 5. They made an initial break down the right before moving the ball wide for the left wing to squeeze in at the corner for an unconverted score. The Stags were soon back on the attack and from another scrum 5 metres out the forwards went for another big drive. The ball popped out the side and Hind was on hand to dive on the ball for his second score. The crucial conversion was wide. The game was settled with 5 minutes left as the students created enough space for their centre to burst through the defence for a converted score. Full time Stags 29 University 38

This was a very disappointing result for the Stags who looked to have recovered from a poor start but ultimately paid the price for too many mistakes, bad decisions and poor tackling. They will have to make considerable improvements before they travel to Glenrothes next Saturday for their next league game with KO 2pm.