Stags End Season with a Flourish

Grangemouth finished their league season last Saturday as Howe of Fife traveled to Glensburgh for their re-arranged league fixture. The Stags were able to field a fairly strong side but the visitors traveled with a weakened side. On a bright but cold day the Stags got off to a perfect start. After just 2 minutes Grangemouth attacked from deep and good hands moved the ball to the Howe 22. Rutherford appeared on the far outside and with startling pace burst up the touchline to score in the corner. Grangemouth continued to attack and a few minutes later Allan was released on the wing and he kicked ahead. The visitors gave away a penalty at the breakdown and Hind took the quick tap and fed Scott who burst through some poor attempted tackles to score. Try number 3 came on 20 minutes. Brooks made the initial charge and then good hands in the backs released Allan who raced in for an unconverted score. Grangemouth collected the bonus point score soon after when Fisher took a quick tap and passed to Stangoe who crashed through to score under the posts. This time Fisher was able to add the conversion. From the kick off the Stags again attacked from deep. Gemmell, Hind and Fisher were all involved in the move before Allan was on hand to collect his second score. Fisher added the conversion. Just on half time another sweeping move from deep resulted in a high tackle on Christie. Another tap penalty resulted in Scott collecting the final pass for his second score. Fisher added his 3rd conversion. HT Stags 36 Howe 0

Grangemouth continued to dominate at the start of the second half. Denny made a break to take play up to the Howe 22. The forwards then took over with a series of drives and were only halted by the visitors killing the ball at the breakdown. Hind took the tap penalty and ran in for his first try. Again Fisher was on target with the kick. Another sweeping move from deep saw Gemmell collect the final pass and run in for try number 8 with Fisher adding the conversion. The one way traffic continued. Kinnear made a break from a scrum on halfway and released Allan on the wing. He took play into the Howe 22 before passing back inside to Kinnear who ran in under the posts. Fisher duly added the conversion. Allan then collected his third try. He made the initial run before exchanging passes with Gemmell to run in under the posts. Fisher was again on target with the conversion. Grangemouth scored 2 further unconverted scores. First another run from Allan saw the winger pass back inside to Fisher who strolled over for his first try. Then after more pressure on the Howe line Hind collected a pass from a tap penalty for his second score. With still 10 minutes to go Howe lauched an attack and good hands saw their winger beat the cover for a consolation score. Both sides agreed that enough was enough and the referee blew for full time. FT Stags 74 Howe 7

This was a very easy win for the Stags who dominated all phases of the game. The backs ran strongly and handled well to collect some very good trys while the forwards dominated the breakdown. This completes the season for the 1st XV although a squad make the long trip to Orkney for their annual seven a side tournament this Saturday.. The 2nd XV played old rivals Fife Southern last Saturday. The first half was tied at 17 all with trys from McNiff and Love (2) and a conversion from Chapman. In a tense second half it was the visitors who sneaked the victory with a last minute penalty to win 20 - 17. This week the 2nds travel to play Bo'ness with KO 3pm.