2nds lose at GHA

GHA Gazelles 22 - Cumnock 2nd XV 5

The 2XV were on the road last weekend as they travelled to Braidholm to take on the Gazelles, which is their over 35 side. After the previous week’s result the squad were confident of putting in another good team performance. It was always going to be a difficult task as the home side contained a lot of players who had played at a higher level.
The home side started well and put the younger Cumnock side under a lot of pressure with some good driving play from the forwards. The defence held out well, but the home pack were not to denied and after a series of penalties conceded close to the line, the home No 8 crashed over to open the scoring in the 7th minute. The conversion was missed, but the home side led 5-0.
The referee allocated to the match was very inexperienced and the Gazelles used this to their advantage better than Cumnock did, being continually offside. They kept the ball in the forwards and they made ground in doing so. Too often when the visitors attacked, the pass was delayed or the wrong option taken and the chance was lost. Taking the ball into contact with these big forwards was a mistake as they were able to rip the ball out and steal possession.
The game swung from end to end, as Cumnock tried to spin the ball wide to keep the ball away from the home forwards, but dropped passes or good cover defence were the order of the day.
In the 18th minute the home forwards drove the visitors over their line and the No 8 scored his second try of the day to take the score to 10-0.
Murray Philp was doing well in the line outs, taking a lot of ball, and the backs looked to run at the defence every chance they got. Andrew Watt worked extremely hard in the unaccustomed role of hooker.
There was no further scoring until the 32nd minute when GHA finally spun the ball wide and the winger went outside the cover defence to score between the posts. This try was converted to stretch the home side’s advantage to 17-0. With half time approaching, a piece of quick thinking by the visitors allowed them back into the match. The ball had been kicked out for a lineout, but Greg Hamilton took a quick throw in and the ball was passed along the line to Mick Harkin, who ignored his supporting runner and sprinted over for the try. Craig McWhirter, who had another excellent game at scrumhalf, narrowly missed the conversion.
The second half showed a marked improvement in the Cumnock performance with several players putting in strong runs, but the final pass just didn’t go to hand. The defence was excellent, with some of the tackling outstanding. Cumnock spent most of the half on the attack, but were unable to get across the line. With time running out, GHA made one of their rare forays up the pitch and scored in the last minute to take the final score to 22-5.
There was an encouraging debut at No 8 for Matt McCulloch, who showed that he will be a welcome addition to the squad.


Squad: Watt, Ramage, Harkin, Lawler, Seng, Barr, Hastings, Hamilton, M Thomson, Taylor, Black, Philp, McCulloch, McWhirter, McConochie, Wallace, S Manning, P Manning
Saturday sees the 2nds travel to Renton to take on Loch Lomond looking to win.

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