Cumnock senior results for Sat 28/11/09

Cumbernauld 30 Cumnock 1st xv 0

After a week’s weather enforced lay off, Cumnock returned to action against Cumbernauld this weekend.

Eerie conditions greeted them with the pitch shrouded in a thick fog. This covered the fact that the pitch was soaking wet. It was never going to be a day for running rugby.
Cumbernauld started strongly with a powerful charge from their winger straight from the kick off. He was eventually hauled down twenty metres short although Cumbernauld retained possession and continued to drive forward through their powerful forwards. Stubborn Cumnock defence kept the home side at bay with some excellent defence round the fringes of the rucks. However, every time Cumnock retrieved the ball and cleared it, Cumbernauld’s solid set piece play meant they kept the ball and continued to drive forward. It was inevitable that they would eventually drive over the line and so it proved when they released the ball wide and exploited a bit of confusion in the defence to squeeze into the corner. The conversion was missed.
The game continued in this fashion with Cumbernauld controlling the possession and slowly but surely building a solid platform. Against this Cumnock continued to defend stoically with several good hits from Graham Hunter and Jamie Thomson on the much larger forwards of Cumbernauld.
However, it is hard to keep this up for ever and Cumbernauld eventually managed to score another unconverted try as well as a penalty. Kyle Johnson missed a tricky penalty in the fog which was to prove Cumnock’s best chance to score.
Cumbernauld also added another score just before half time when their forwards drove Cumnock over the line for their third try which was converted.
The second half was even scrappier than the first, not helped by the increasingly slippy playing surface and the thick fog. The first twenty minutes of the half were characterized by endless scrums caused by handling errors from both teams, not helped by the fact that often the players couldn’t actually see the ball coming in the fog. Cumnock again struggled to impose themselves on the game with Cumbernauld keeping hold of the ball where Cumnock were able to make several good breaks but then being isolated and losing possession. However, Cumnock’s defence was again excellent with Number 8, Jamie Thomson putting in a series of consistently bone shattering tackles backed up with good hits by Scott Houston and Ross Black, making his first start for the first team.
Cumbernauld managed to eventually break through as their winger showed excellent determination to stretch for the line despite a good tackle by Conner Nisbet. The conversion was again missed.
The last few minutes were very similar to the rest of the game with Cumbernauld running hard at Cumnock’s defence although the visitors stubbornly held their line. This was characterised by an excellent try saving tackle from Martin Hastings on his opposite number which showed Cumnock’s determination not to concede despite the score line. Cumbernauld did manage one more in the corner with another missed conversion ending the match.
Despite the disappointing result Cumnock showed a lot of character in adversity as promotion chasing Cumbernauld showed their experience to play the conditions better than the young visiting side.
Jamie Thomson was Cumnock’s man of the match with an outstanding defensive effort.

Team: Craig Greer, Paul Miller, Donald Hunter, Kevin Brady, Blair McMillan, Graham Hunter, David Kerr, Jamie Thomson, Craig McWhirter, Kyle Johnson, Gregor McMillan, Mark Bennett, Conner Nisbet, Tony Foster, Ross Black, Barry Horton, Scott Houston, Martin Hastings

Next Week: Cumnock host Oban at Broomfield in the latest round of league matches.


Garnock 2A 34 Cumnock 2nd XV 0

Cumnock 2nd XV travelled upto Garnock in 2nd XV League action against the team 3rd in the league. Due to late call offs Cumnock only went up with 12 players. Garnock were very kind to give Cumnock 2 players to make it 14 players for Cumnock and 15 for Garnock.

From the kick-off all the Cumnock players moved forward very well, with some positive moves towards the home try line. Cumnock had several phases from the forwards keeping it around itself attacking the try line. Cumnock even had a try disallowed as it appeared it was held up on the try line.

Garnock took the sustained pressure from the first 20 minutes and finally started using its numerical advantage and moved up the pitch and used the overlap to score 3 tries in the first half to make it 19-0 at half time.

Cumnock started the 2nd half with more positive play and continued to have periods of play in the Garnock half. Unfortunately our hooker got injured and we had to change to uncontested scrums. Garnock again gave us another player who had been subbed to join the Cumnock team. Garnock scored another 3 tries in the 2nd half with its numerical advantage to finish the game 34-0.

The Cumnock players were all a credit to the club, who went up to Garnock. Man of the match was Jason Johnstone for his tackling, running in the backs and positional play.

Cumnock 2nd XV travels upto Waysiders/Drumpellier on Saturday 5th with 2pm kick off.

Cumnock team: A. Watt, B. Horton, B. Holland, S. Manning, M Harkin, A. Nairn, S. Taylor, J. Ferrans, K. Barr, J. Johnstone, J. Seng, M. Thomson