Perthshire pay the penalty as Hillhead take full advantage
Perthshire 14 – Hillhead Jordanhill 34
Perthshire fielded what could arguably be described as their strongest squad of the season and the half dozen home supporters who bothered to show up to watch were treated to a lightning start from the boys in black and white. Ryan Miller set up the move and Adam Dearden sent Mat Rae on the run before he found young Murray Ormiston who finished off in spectacular fashion and with Dearden’s conversion, Shire found themselves 7 – 0 up with barely two minutes played. Hillhead had a very solid experienced pack though and with Shire giving away a penalty they hefted the ball downfield for a lineout 10 metres from the Shire line. From there it was a simple take and drive for the equalising try. With Miller and Dearden bringing a stabilising influence at half back Shire looked dangerous and a bit of Dearden magic gave Armitt Shire’s second try. Noticing the rush defence of Hillhead, he delayed his pass for just a second creating a gap for Jonny Armitt to fly through and the full back was unstoppable as he ran under the posts. Perthshire were winning ball in the forwards but some of the passing and kicking was deplorable and instead of turning the screw on Hillhead it just gave them possession and allowed them to impose themselves on the game. The usual defensive lapses crept in and Hillhead scored after setting up a solid platform and slick passing found Twaddle unmarked as dived in at the corner. Shire were still leading 14 -12 at this stage but continued to waste good ball and the penalty count was mounting up against them. Hillhead realised that all they had to do was kick the penalties deep into touch and set up another attacking platform. After several penalties the referee had had enough and Shire were reduced to 14 men. The inevitable penalty, lineout, try combination worked again and just before half time it seemed as though Shire were not learning any lessons from the referee and the same sequence occurred again as Hillhead’s Reekie was driven over once more for the bonus point.
The 2nd half was a repeat of the first with Shire again being penalised umpteen times for not rolling away but for some reason persisted in doing it again and again and more yellow cards were shown. The defence tightened up and Hillhead were limited to 10 points in the 2nd half but although there were one or two flourishes, the Eagles couldn’t string together any prolonged attacks to get any points on the board.
The return of young Murray Ormiston, Ross Dougan, Ryan Miller and Adam Dearden has certainly boosted Shire and they have some excellent individual players but the team as a whole are not firing. Giving away penalties for not rolling away can be caused by a lack of knowledge of the laws, lack of fitness to move away in time, opposition holding players in or even refereeing mistakes but whatever the cause it certainly lost this game for Shire. Losing 24 points from 3 converted tries and 1 penalty directly as a result of giving away penalties would put any team on the back foot. The coaches have no respite next week as the team travel to take on old rivals Howe who have a huge support and are undefeated since losing their opening fixture.
Shire have been in this situation before and have pulled themselves out of it with hard training and an improved attitude and barring any more serious injuries they will do so again.
