Honours Shared

Grangemouth welcomed Stirling University to Glensburgh on a crisp and sunny day ideal for playing rugby. Having missed out to a frozen pitch last weekend, the home side were eager to get back into the swing of things. Previous matches between the sides have awls been interesting affairs and this game was important for both sides.

Grangemouth kicked off the match, playing towards the clubhouse and were quickly on the attack. From a series of drives McNiff opened the scoring in five minutes with McInally bagging the extras. Grangemouth were exerting pressure but the last pass was going astray or being dropping giving the initiative back to the visitors. From one of these turn overs, the students took the ball up the field and scored in the corner. Conversion missed. Further mistakes by Grangemouth handed easy scores to the students as they increased their lead with a converted try when the ball was kicked to their speedy winger. Approaching half time, Grangemouth were battering the visitor's line when again the ball was lost and the students raced the length of the park to score another converted try. Half time 7-19.

Grangemouth started the second half better but the failings from the first half – passing to the opposition instead of men in red and black tops or dropping the ball at a crucial phase quickly proved their undoing. The students scored within five minutes to get their bonus point and give the home side a mountain to climb.

Credit to Grangemouth they really buckled down and forced the Students back with McNiff scoring his second. The momentum had shifted to the home side and great breaks from Skipper and Innes foundered with misplaced passes.

The home side rallied with great invention from Skipper with a chip over the Uni defence and touching down his kick, McInally getting the conversion to move the score to 19-24. Within sight of a remarkable victory, the Stags continued to probe and finally following a series of drives Innes scored. The extras were missed giving a 24-24 tie. With just over 5 minutes left both sides were straining for the winning score. Grangemouth battering at the door of the Uni defence and the students still dangerous on the break. The Stags had chances to snatch a win as they moved the ball up field however the old failing of lack of composure reappeared. A final scrum was penalised for not putting the ball in quickly enough and the students kicked the ball out to end the contest. Full time 24-24.

Grangemouth made life very hard for themselves and didn’t impose themselves on the visitors. Credit to the students who played an expansive game and were unlucky not to take full points in this match.

Saturday 7 Dec has the 1sts at home to Madras. Kick off 2pm.