Grangemouth Stags 46 Ross Sutherland 29

Ross Sutherland made the long trip south from Invergordon last week to face the Stags in round five of the league campaign with both sides seeking their first win of the season. Once again Grangemouth were forced into a number of changes with a complete change in the front row and the return of veteran centre McIntyre for his first game of the season and to renew his partnership with young Tom Chapman. On a perfect day for rugby Grangemouth made a great start. They swept up field from the kick off and after a fine run from Mallinson, McIntyre used his size to crash over near the posts to leave an easy conversion by McInally. A few minutes later the Stags front row took a strike against the head and when McIntyre was held just short, hooker Brough arrived to take the scoring pass for a 12 nil lead inside the first 10 minutes. However any suggestion that this was going to be one way traffic was soon dispelled as Ross dominated the next 20 minutes. A speculative kick from the visitors stand off was only just scrambled clear in the dead ball area but their opening try followed soon after with good play in the backs releasing the right winger to dive over in the corner. Grangemouth did increase their lead again with a McInally penalty. Once again the visitors showed they were dangerous on the break as they ran from deep only to be held up on the home line. They were not to be denied and scored after a series of short range drives. The scores were then levelled after 30 minutes when Ross ran a tap penalty and drove over for their third try. Grangemouth regained the lead soon after. From a scrum in midfield Inglis linked with winger Russell who made a strong run to the 22. The ball was quickly recycled and moved to the left where Allan showed his pace to run round under the posts for a converted try. Straight from the restart Keigan, McInally and Angus combined to drive up field. From the resultant scrum McIntyre made another burst before the ball was moved to Allan to sail over in the corner for his second and the bonus point try. HT 27 – 15

The opening 20 minutes of the second half was dominated by the home side and they soon consolidated their lead. First Gowdy made a break from full back and when he was stopped McNiff was on hand to score under the posts. Mallinson made another strong run and Allan and Chapman combined but were held up just short. However Allan completed his hat trick soon after as he dived over in the corner after a tap penalty. As in the first half Ross fought back and scored two tries of their own. Firstly their left winger showed good pace to round the defence and score under the posts and then the right winger cut inside past some poor tackling for another 7 points. With the lead now just 10 points the Stags re-grouped and finished the game strongly. Wilson was unlucky as his chip kick took a wicked bounce and he was unable to re-gather with the line open before McIntyre again used his size to crash over from short range with McInally adding the conversion. Final score 46 – 29

This was a good win for the Stags with a much improved performance in the set pieces and some strong running in the backs. The coaches will be slightly worried by the lapses in concentration which allowed the visitors back into the game, especially with more difficult opponents in the next few weeks. This Saturday the 1st and 2nds travel to Forfar to take on Strathmore. Both games kick off at 3pm