Abeerdeen Uni 46 Grangemouth Stags 7

The Stags travelled north to Aberdeen last Saturday with a much changed side due to injuries and unavailability. In fact the side showed only 4 survivors from the last league match at the end of January and included 10 players under 21 including 5 of the current under 18 side. There were also rare outings for James Howie , Niall McDonald and veteran centre Brian Rutherford. Grangemouth played uphill in the first half and started brightly gaining ground with a series of drives by forwards and backs. Unfortunately the ball was turned over in midfield and quick hands by the home backs saw the winger beat the cover to score in the corner. A few minutes later the pattern was repeated as the Stags again lost the ball and this time the other Aberdeen winger was sent clear to score under the posts. Grangemouth continued to play a close driving game up the hill with Mncube and Randalls making several fine runs. Randalls almost scored from one of these drives but was squeezed into touch as he tried to dive over the line. The students continued to punish any mistakes by the visitors and responded with 4 more trys before half time mainly from turnovers in the middle of the park. Half time 32 – 0

Facing such a large deficit at half time it would have been easy for the heads to go down to allow the home side an easy run in the second half. However the young Grangemouth side showed great fight and determination as they defended well and continued to ask questions of the home defence. Despite an early try by the students Grangemouth then hit back to score. Connor McFarlane took a quick tap penalty to beat the defence and score under the posts to leave Chapman with a simple conversion. The final 10 minutes saw Grangemouth continue to play good continuity rugby and Randalls was again unlucky to be held up just short after another 25 metre burst. There was just time for the students to break upfield to score a final try. Final score 46 – 7

The scoreline certainly flattered the home side and there were many positives for Grangemouth to take from the game especially in the performances of Heron, Denny, Mcnab, Baillie and Mcfarlane and not forgetting man of the match Randalls. It was great to see such a committed performance from a young side and with some more organisation the score would have been much closer. Next Saturday the Stags are on the road again to take on Harris in Dundee with a 3pm KO. Please check the website for details of the game as it may not be played at the Harris home ground