Strathmore 29 Stags 5

Grangemouth travelled to Forfar at the weekend to take on Strathmore in a league and bowl double header. The local side were dealt a blow with the late call off of their captain Mcintyre who was replaced at centre by Tucker. With the wind at their backs Grangemouth were on the attack from the kick off but were unable to score with Skipper missing with a drop goal and a penalty. In addition the Stags were guilty of turning over the ball inside the home sides 22. Strathmore used their big forward pack to run the ball out of defence and only good defence kept the scoreboard blank for the opening quarter. Then the Strathmore pack produced a driving maul which was halted just short of the line. Grangemouth conceded a penalty and from the resulting scrum a missed tackle saw the home centre crash over for an unconverted try. Shortly after this the centre made another break from his own half and good hands saw the winger round the defence to score under the posts. From the kick off another break from deep resulted in a kick ahead which was well defended by Chisholm. However with the last play of the half another kick ahead was knocked on close to the line by the Stags and Strathmore moved the ball wide for an unconverted try. Half time 19 – 0.

Grangemouth received the kick off at the start of the 2nd half and were immediately under pressure after knocking the ball on just at their 22 metre line. Good defence especially by Hayes kept Strathmore out until 15 minutes into the half when another turnover resulted in a simple score which was converted. Strathmore scored their 5th try after another missed tackle saw the home winger held just short and the pack drove over from short range. Grangemouth finally managed some pressure of their own and Mncube drove on from a tap penalty The ball was switched blind with Hayes feeding McNiff who scored in the corner. The game ended following a neck injury to Tulloch. The hooker was taken to hospital and but happily was found to have no serious injury.

This was a disappointing performance by the Stags after some strong results in recent weeks. Next week the Stags travel to St Andrews to take on Madras