Stags Beat Weather and Howe

The Stags were at home last Saturday with Howe of Fife the visitors for the first league game of 2015. Grangemouth were able to field a strong side but were missing skipper Weir who was replaced by Stirling while Allan stepped in for the injured Herron. The stormy weather of the week had left the pitches very heavy and conditions were not helped by the bitterly cold wind and frequent snow showers. From the start Grangemouth were on top at the scrums and dominated the early territory. The opening score came on 10 minutes. From a scrum outside the 22 Aspinall picked up and when he was stopped close to the line veteran prop Jamieson was on hand to crash over from his usual 1 metre distance for an unconverted score. The Stags continued to press and try number 2 followed on 16 minutes. The ball was moved down the right from a midfield scrum with Parsons and Pedyo combining to take play deep into the Howe 22. The ball was recycled and good hands by backs and forwards saw the ball reach young Tom Chapman who dived over for a well worked try. Innes was on target with the conversion. The game became bogged down in midfield as the conditions deteriorated and the home side were unable to increase their lead until 5 minutes from the break. The Stags won a good lineout on the 10 metre line and moved the ball into midfield. Innes chose a perfect running line to break the initial defence and when he was held up close to the line Aspinall followed up to slide over for another try. Just on half time Grangemouth collected the bonus point score when backs and forwards combined to send Chapman in at the corner for his second score. HT Stags 22 Howe 0

Grangemouth headed for the sanctuary of the training barn for the half time team talk and Love was replaced by McNiff for the second period. Despite playing into the wind the Stags continued to dominate possession and territory. Try number 5 came on 47 minutes. Innes made a burst up the touch line and linked with Pedyo. The ball was recycled by the forwards to allow Chapman to sell a huge dummy and dart through the Howe defence to complete his hat trick. Soon after Parsons returned a clearing kick to take play deep into the Howe 22 and good support play saw McNiff on hand to collect his first score of the day. Five minutes later he added his second as he collected the scoring pass from Pedyo after Innes had again made the initial break. Innes added the extra 2 points. Straight from the kick off Scott burst through a couple of tackles to race 20 metres up field before passing to Innes who stepped round the full back to glide in from 30 metres. The centre converted his own score. The closing 10 minutes saw the Stags add 3 more scores. First McNiff completed his hat trick when he was on the end of more good handling by backs and forwards. Then from the kick off Innes lead a counter attack before passing to McNiff. The flanker found Hind in support and the young 2nd row capped a fine display with a run in from 20 metres. With the last play of the game Howe tried a clearance kick from their in goal area but only succeeded in lobbing the ball to Rice who picked up to jog in for the easiest score of his career. Innes added the kick to complete the scoring. FT Stags 63 Howe 0.

This was a very good performance from the Stags in very difficult conditions. The forwards dominated the set pieces and backs and forwards handled well despite the weather. A big thanks to Jim Forsyth, Gordon Crossan and all the players who turned up on Saturday morning to help fork the pitches to make sure the games went ahead. This week the Stags will face a tougher challenge as they travel to Carnoustie with KO 2pm.