Stags On the Move

Grangemouth were back at home last Saturday with Kinross the visitors to Glensburgh for week 8 of the league programme. The visitors were having a much better season with 4 winsfrom their 7 matches and were sitting in 4th place. The Stags made 5 changes from the trip to Blairgowrie with Christie and the veteran Williamson coming into the front row, Mcniff back at wing forward and Ward and Allan in the backs. On another good day for rugby Grangemouth had the advantage of the wind in the first half and should have scored after just 2 minutes. An up and under from young Chapman was missed by the visitors and collected by Innes. He moved the ball on to Denny but with the route to the line clear Pedyo was unable to hold on to the final pass. Grangemouth did take the lead 5 minutes later. The Stags won untidy ball at a lineout just outside the Kinross 22. The forwards cleaned up the possession and the ball was moved along the back line for Herron to power over in the corner for an unconverted score. Try number 2 followed on 12 minutes. Another Chapman high kick caused panic in the Kinross defence. Innes grabbed the loose ball before chipping the ball over the full back and outpacing the cover for a try. He then added the conversion. Straight from the kick off Aspinall collected the ball and set off up field. The ball was moved wide by Scott and Chapman and an Innes dummy saw the centre break clear and run in from half way for his second score in as many minutes. The conversion was wide. Kinross had hardly been in the game at this point but they gradually gained some territory as they used their forwards to drive up the field. They ran one fairly simple penalty on the Stags 22 and a couple of minutes later missed a kick from a similar position. Grangemouth returned to the attack and gained the bonus point score just after the half hour mark. An attempted clearance kick was collected by Pedyo. He moved the ball along the back line and like the opening try it was Herron who was given the space to beat the cover and score in the corner. Just on half time Kinross were turned over in midfield. The backs moved the ball to Pedyo who used his pace to round the full back and score out wide. Innes was off target with the kick. HT Stags 29 Kinross 0

The second half was a very different affair and was very forgettable for the home crowd. Kinross continued to use their forwards to gain territory while the home side were unable to gain much clean possession and gave away numerous penalties at the breakdown. Kinross should have scored on 64 minutes as they created an overlap for their right winger but he was unable to hold on to the scoring pass. They did score with 10 minutes to go when their scrum half darted over from a 5 metre scrum for a converted score. Good work from Cunningham and James Rutherford had the Stags on the attack in the closing minutes but their efforts came to nothing to leave the full time score Stags 29 Kinross 7.

This was a mixed performance from the home side. The coaches were fairly happy with the overall play in the first half but disappointed as the side were sucked into an arm wrestle in the second period. Of note it was good to see that 13 of the 20 man squad were under 24 and had all come through the junior ranks at the club in the last few years. The Stags now have a few weeks off for the Autumn Internationals with the next game due to be away against Stirling University on the 6th December.