Stags Lose Out in High Scoring Encounter

Grangemouth welcomed Ellon to Glensburgh on a perfect day for rugby on the final league fixture of season 21/22. This match was originally meant to be played in December but fell foul to covid.

Grangemouth starting XV saw a number of changes with Ward, Clyne, Ferguson and Mowat in the backs. Ellon kicked off and Grangemouth seemed to have the matter in hand but allowed the ball to bounce, which was gathered by Ellon. The ball was fed to Andrew who ran into score. 0-7 down and only 2 minutes played.

This spurred Grangemouth into action and following a series of drives, Harvey crashed over. The conversion was missed 5-7. The try brought some confidence into the Stags team and they seemed more assured with the ball. However some slack defending allowed Ellon back up filed and a resultant penalty saw them increase their lead 5-10.

Grangemouth took the initiative following an offside penalty at an Ellon lineout when McNiff was able to score following another series of drives. 10-10. This was following by a scintillating piece of play running off scrum ball. Ward made a deep thrust on the blindside and broke a tackle. He then fed Forsyth who ran in to score. Skelton got the extras 17-10.

Ellon hit back with a run of their own. A missed tackle by Stags saw them score in them corner. The conversation was missed 17-15. Ellon attacked again and scored another try to make it 17-22.

Stags fought back and following a series of scrum penalties in the Ellon 22 saw Hind crash over. Skelton got the conversion to make the half time score 24-22.

The 2nd half didn’t match the efforts of the first. Ellon were quickly on the Grangemouth defence and thought they had scored but were held up over the line and Skelton managed a deep drop out to push Ellon back. The match then deteriorated into an arm wrestle between the two teams with little action of note.

Ellon were penalised at a ruck> An Ellon player impeded the Stags player from taking the subsequent penalty and was given a yellow card. Grangemouth couldn’t make much of the man advantage and it was Ellen who came closet to scoring.

Stags started to concede a number of penalties which allowed Ellon to gain ground and they made this pressure tell with the final try of the match. This was converted 24-29.

In the last 10 mins of the match, Stags were penalised and Hind shown a yellow card. Ellon played out the last few mins of the match to take the away win.

This was a winnable match for the Stags and they will rue a couple of clear scoring opportunities when a better pass would have freed the player to score. The two teams were fairly equally match with Ellon showing better composure throughout the match to deservedly take the points. After a long season, the players will benefit from some rest and recuperation before pre season resumes in June

Saturday 14th May sees the final league game for the 2nds when Montrose are due to visit. Kick off 3pm