Friday Night Frights
Howe of Fife 74 – 19 Perthshire
Set piece woes haunt Perthshire
A large vocal crowd assembled at Duffus Park, in anticipation of decades old local derby under the floodlights. The first half lived up to the billing but by the second half, the crowd quietened as the match became a formality. Still there were positives to take and Perthshire kept fighting to the end.
Perthshire kicked off into the still and mild night, near perfect conditions for a match. The initial exchanges ware even, especially the kicking tennis that ensued. Jonny Armitt was denied a 50:22 by a dubious call from the home touch judge which added to the edginess of these opening minutes.
It would prove a problem all night as ‘Shire could not secure their own lineout ball. An early lineout fumble allowed Howe to kick through, Jonny Armitt manged to secure the bouncing ball under sustained pressure and then from the ruck James Mair made a storming break. Finding space he covered 20m before an over ambitious pass to the wing went into touch. There was certainly intent from the men in Black & White.
From the Howe lineout, Aidan Watson came up rapidly to intercept a pass and, after pulling in a few defenders, offloaded to Rory Bayne who covered the final metres to cross the whitewash, Jonny Armitt added the extras.
Howe came back and went through the phases. The ‘Shire defence absorbed it all and forced a knock-on. Despite having the put in, ‘Shire were pushed back and concede a penalty. Going to the corner, Howe set a maul from the lineout which was held out. Chop tackles brought down the runner and Perthshire thought they’d won a turnover only for the referee to judge it differently and award Howe the penalty. This was tapped and within a few phases Howe scored an unconverted try to make it 5-7.
Testy exchanges followed and Howe came close to another try but were denied as the final pass went forward. It was not long until the Fifers took the lead, a charged down clearance kick bounced around and hit the referee but play continued. Howe shifted it right to left, then a short pass back inside to a barging front row carry crashed over.
Howe backed this up quickly as from the kick-off the back rows got involved in off the ball antics with their opposite numbers, creating space in the midfield for the Howe centre to scythe through and score from 50m out. Adding the conversion it was now 19-7.
This focussed the energies of both packs and ‘Shire led a strong defensive charge forcing back the Howe attack until they threw the ball into touch. This good work seemed to be undone as despite securing the ball from the lineout the next ruck was under-resourced and Howe won penalty. Lewis Murrie had other ideas and was lightening quick off the back of the following lineout putting extreme pressure on the backline. They fly-half fumbled the pass, Aidan Watson hacked it on and scooped up the ball to canter in under the posts. Jonny Armitt again slotting the conversion. 19-14.
Jonny Armitt was mastering the kicking game, the fullback either directing his kick returns to unguarded areas of the pitch or running it back and making up swathes of territory. With clean ball both Aidan Watson and Rory Bayne were very dangerous in attack. Howe had their hands full trying to contain them. However, often ‘Shire did not work hard enough to support them nor back up their attacks and the momentum would be lost.
On the defensive front Dan Rae and James Mair were shutting down anything in the close quarters but there was space to be found out wide. Howe exploited this for 2 more tries in the first half. The set piece continued to let ‘Shire down with the scrum now also becoming a weakness. The back row having to stay in created the space required for a hard tight running line by the inside centre to break clean through and score once more before half time to build a commanding lead, 36-14.
The intensity did not let up as the second half opened. There were some big hits and keenly contested breakdowns to excite the crowd. Howe opened the scoring when a soft shoulder on the fringe allowed them to break on the wing and get in behind. Stopped 5m short they patiently built the pressure before taking the unconverted try.
Within minutes Aidan Watson ignited a free-flowing move. Catching a clearance kick around halfway, he put on the after burners as he danced down the left touchline leaving defenders grasping at thin air. Blocked with 10m to go he passed back to Jack McIntosh who also put on a turn of space to sprint the final 10m and dive over in the corner for an unconverted try, 41-19.
Barely had the dust settled and the Eagles were back in defence, hitting hard and containing Howe. Amongst the fury, Dan Rae was shown a yellow card for a tip tackle. Booting the penalty to the corner, Howe set a maul, trundled forward and broke off to score.
Buoyed, Howe began to turn the screw. Hard carries, scrum and lineout dominance; Perthshire were definitely up against it now. There were flashpoints as disagreements between players were expressed, the referee unable to police them. This made no difference as Howe exerted their dominance to score twice more before Dan Rae could return.
There was no shortage of ambition from Perthshire as they went hunting for the fourth and bonus point try. Potentially they were guilty of trying too hard. An offloading game made great inroads but one speculative pass too many and the attack ended. Matt Stevens was providing the momentum with sort taps and hard carries, Aidan Watson & Rory Bayne could exploit some space, all to no avail.
By the time the referee blew for the end of the match, ‘Shire were down to 14 men as injuries took their toll and Howe had scored twice more to make it 74-19. Both teams looked exhausted, the crowd knew the was nothing much left in the tank with neither giving up for a full 80 minute performance. It went Howe’s way and there are lessons to learn for Perthshire, but also a positive, that the spirit did not break and the squad were not intimidated by a large opposition crowd.
It was a similar score line for the 2XV on their league match, also a under the floodlights on Friday night in Forfar.
Strathmore 2XV 57 – 14 Perthshire 2XV
Due to injuries and late call-ups to the 1XV, Campbell Watson’s 2XV was a scraped together, only 15 players for the short trip to Forfar. The normal warm up routine was ruined due to heavy traffic making players arrive late. That being said the Perthshire players played out their skins under difficult circumstances.
Perthshire kicked the match off and immediately put Strathie under pressure in their own half. Strong tackling from Bruce Campbell put the home side on the back foot, however Strathie used the space and their pace to score the first try of the match. ‘Shire kicked off again and were camped on the opposition’s try line for what seemed an eternity but were unable to capitalise on their possession.
This seemed to be the theme for the game, ‘Shire would gain territory only to lose it due to unforced errors or Strathies resolute defence. Strathmore were unable to cope with the ‘Shire set piece at all, their scrum was on skates the whole match and the Perth men used this to good effect.
This was a game where the score line didn’t reflect the game at all. Strathmore took their chances and were clinical whereas ‘Shire squandered a number of theirs, only scoring twice through Rabson Chipakupaku and Kyle Montgomerie. A tough shift on a very wet and boggy pitch.
Next weekend there are no matches as Scotland play Fiji at Murrayfield. This allows the squad a break and chance for some of the injuries to recover before league action resumes the following weekend, Saturday 12th November. The 1XV will travel to Glasgow to play Hillhead Jordanhill while the 2XV have a home fixture against Waid Academy FP, both will kick off at 2pm.
