After a six week break the Stags were back in action last Saturday when they
welcomed Hillfoots to Glensburgh. Grangemouth were able to welcome back Bell,
White, Wieczorek, Allan and Hind to the starting lineup. On a perfect day for rugby
the Stags started strongly. They pinned the visitors in their 22 and forced them into
conceding several penalties. Unfortunately Grangemouth let Hillfoots off the hook
with some woeful kicking from hand. However the home side did open the scoring
after 15 minutes. They secured a lineout and the ball was moved through the hands
to Allan who made ground on the wing. The ball was recycled and moved back to the
right and makeshift centre Hind beat the last man to run in for the score. Coyle
slotted the conversion. Having worked hard for the opening score the Stags
immediately gave up 2 soft scores. Firstly from the kick off they conceded a penalty
which was converted by the visitors fullback. Then they failed to clear their lines after
a kick and chase by Hillfoots and gave away another penalty deep in their 22. This
time the visitors took a quick tap and forced their way over from close range for a
converted score. On the half hour mark Grangemouth retook the lead. They kicked a
penalty to touch deep in the opposition 22. They drove the lineout before slipping the
pass to White to crash over from close range. Coyle was again on target with the
extras. The half finished with Hillfoots missing a penalty attempt and the Stags
knocking the ball on close to the goal line after a series of drives. HT Stags 14 Foots
10.

The second half was an entirely different story. Hillfoots upped their game and totally
dominated the play. The Stags failed to respond to the pressure from the visitors as
they missed tackles, gave away numerous penalties and managed to mess up 3
restarts as they allowed Hillfoots easy possession and territory. As a result the
visitors scored 4 second half tries and a penalty to record 29 unanswered points.
The Stags rarely threatened against a rampant opposition. FT Stags 14 Foots 39.
This was a very disappointing result for the Stags. Of more concern to the coaches
was the performance especially in the second half. There were many of the old
failings with frequent mistakes and penalties but some of the kicking from hand was
so poor and as a result there was little opportunity to exert any pressure on the
opposition. This week Grangemouth travel to Cupar to face Howe of Fife with a 3pm
KO.