Greenock Advance as Eagles’ Focus Wanders

Greenock Wanderers 32 – 16 Perthshire

Bruce boots ‘Shire ahead before second half calamity.

Spring was in the air as Perthshire travelled to Greenock. Fort Matilda was looking green, the sun was shining and conditions were near perfect for rugby. A large home crowd had assembled in what they hoped would be the renaissance of Greenock who have struggled this season. Perthshire’s job was simple, Head Coach Alan Clark spelt it out before kick-off: play rugby, silence the home support and put points on the board.

Perthshire received the kick-off and started brightly winning a penalty within the Greenock half. Calum Bruce took the opportunity and slotted the 3 points to take an early lead. Bad luck hit though as Claude Millée on the wing had to retire with an injury to his shoulder, seeing Aedan Milne make an early entry off the bench.

More bad luck followed as centre James Armstrong left the field injured, he would return briefly later but could not continue so by 20 minutes of the game played half the bench was used.

The referee allowed play to resume before substitution Jack McIntosh was able to get into position, taking advantage of rejigging the back line, Greenock put in a crossfield kick wide & deep into the 22. Scrambling and on the back foot Perthshire held out for a few phases but couldn’t organise the defence before Greenock pushed over for the opening score.

Hurt by this Perthshire sprung into action however, in these opening exchanges they were guilty of forcing play and making errors or giving away penalties. Nothing seemed to stick. Greenock then managed to get out wider and break down the left wing. They couldn’t cross the line but an offside penalty gave, former Perthshire player, AJ Guthrie an easy 3 points to increase their lead.

Perthshire kicked the restart deep and Greenock responded in kind. Isolated on the wing Perthshire conceded a penalty which Greenock failed to find touch with, however, the ‘Shire clearance didn’t make touch either and Greenock then put a 50:22 kick down the other wing to gain lineout throw. The ensuing maul sucked in the forwards and one pass out led to a try, 13-3 to the Wanderers.

This seemed to get the Eagles moving up the gears. The remainder of the half saw Perthshire capitalise on their obvious scrum advantage. As has been the case this season, the dominant scrum is not getting the penalties due but is providing a solid platform. Into the 22, Perthshire were struggling to make the final pass stick or build sufficient pressure to score. Then spying a space out wide Calum Bruce kicked crossfield where it bounced and landed in to the arms of the on-rushing Jack McIntosh who danced past 2 defenders to score a try converted by Bruce.

Perthshire continued to pressurise Wanderers and by the stroke of half time had secured 6 more points from the boot of Calum Bruce to lead 13-16. Captain Mat Rae took charge telling his team to trust their processes and continue ratcheting up the pressure on Greenock. Kyle MacKinnon was destroying the opposite front row, the scrum was to be the platform on which to build the win.

That message got lost. Perthshire started the second half dismally, conceding 2 tries in quick succession, including when down to 14 men, after Kieran Ramsay was shown a yellow card for a “dangerous tackle.”

There was a renaissance but ‘Shire could not hold on to their ball, often being isolated and getting turned over. Greenock played an excellent kicking game forcing Perthshire back and finding space in behind to exploit. All the day scrum was solid; James Mair and Calum Chalmers were winning turnovers and Mat Rae & Kieran Ramsay would make surges in the centre. Yet, it all came to nothing.

Tackling which had been good crept ever higher allowing Greenock more opportunities to break past defenders and ‘Shire tired. There was time for one more Wanderers score before the match petered out. Scoring 19 unanswered points in the second half allowed Greenock to seal the match comfortably, 32-16.

The home crowd were ecstatic and maybe that played into Perthshire’s second half fragility. A huge improvement is required before next weekend when a trip to league leaders Lasswade beckons. As spring is here, it’s the business end of the league season now. Perthshire are in a reasonable position but need to lift themselves up after this defeat to finish the season strongly.

The 2XV short of numbers due to COVID-19 gallantly fulfilled a fixture at Crieff while under resourced and will too face a tough away trip to Waid FP next weekend.

Photos taken by Heather Kirkman.