2018/19 League Campaign Ends with a Win

The Stags wrapped up their season at home last Saturday as they welcomed Harris to Glensburgh. The sides had met in the reverse fixture just two weeks ago with Grangemouth running out comfortable winners. With a host of players unavailable the Stags gave starts to Keigan, Spence, Hendry, Scott,Chapman,Allan and Ross Christie with 4 further positional changes. Grangemouth made a solid start and scored after just 5 minutes. Allan had a run up the line to take play into the visitors 22. The forwards took over with a series of drives for the line before Mark Christie crashed over for the opening score. Shannon was unable to add the extras. The early score failed to settle the home side and they were guilty of giving away several penalties at the breakdown. This allowed Harris to kick the ball into the Stags 22. From a lineout they brought their centre in on an angle to slice through the home defence and score a converted try under the posts. On 20 minutes the visitors added a second score. Grangemouth missed a tackle on the Harris 22. Good support play saw the ball move the length of the field before the winger squeezed in at the corner to extend the lead. The Stags replied a few minutes later. The home pack dominated at scrum time and after a couple of scrums the ball was moved out to Dempsey who ran round the cover to score. Shannon was wide with the kick. Once again Grangemouth seemed to relax and another missed tackle allowed Harris to break the line and score under the posts. The last 5 minutes of the half saw the Stags finally exert some control to score 2 trys. First the pack secured a lineout 8 metres from the line. The pack drove on with Keigan staying bound at the back (hope you were watching Ben!) to drive over for his first competitive try for the club. This time Shannon slotted the conversion. Then with the last play of the half Dempsey collected his second score. He picked up at the base of a scrum on halfway and darted blind before outpacing the cover for a fine individual score. Shannon added the extras. HT Stags 24 Harris 19

Grangemouth were straight back on the attack at the start of the second period. From the kick off Scott collected the ball and made 40 metres before being brought to ground. The ball was recycled and moved wide. Chapman released Downie and the young winger drew the last man before slipping the pass back to Chapman for the score. Shannon kicked the conversion. Harris failed to kick the restart 10 metres giving the Stags a scrum on halfway. Dempsey set off on another run and when he was tackled Binnie carried on before passing to Scott for the score . This time the conversion was wide. Once agin the home side seemed to lose concentration and this allowed the visitors to snatch their fourth try for the bonus point. They set up play on the 22 before switching blind to score in the corner. On the hour mark Grangemouth added their 7th try. A rock solid scrum in the Harris 22 saw Scott pick up before being tackled just short of the line. Dempsey was in support to pick up and dive over from short range. Shannon slotted the conversion. The closing stages were very scrappy as both sides made numerous handling errors. Allan was given a yellow card for a high tackle before with the final play Dempsey added another score. Harris were turned over on their 22 and the ball was popped up for Dempsey to break the initial tackle and run in under the posts. Shannon was on target with the final kick. FT Stags 50 Harris 24.

This was a low key performance by the home side. They totally dominated at scrum time but especially in the first half gave away numerous penalties and missed far too many tackles. This result leaves the Stags in 4th place in the league with 47 points form 9 wins, 6 defeats and 1 draw. The team will certainly be looking to build on these results for next season but will require more consistent performances and player availability. There will also be the added challenge of a league trip to Orkney next season. Next dates in the diary are the club AGM on 23 April and the Captains v Presidents followed by the players dinner on 11 May.