Blair Fail to Stop the Orcadians

Saturday 4th April, the Blairgowrie senior squad welcomed Orkney RFC to the J J Coupar Park hoping that they could secure some points against the islanders who had won convincingly at home earlier in the season. The first half was evenly contested with both sides defending well with some try saving tackles from Michael Black and Michael Grant who was deputising at full back. Blairgowrie put together some good phases of play but failed to capitalise on their early pressure. Both sides failed to successfully kick their penalties in the first half until seconds before the interval when Stephen Souter slotted the ball between the posts to give Blairgowrie a 3-0 lead at half time.

From the restart it was the Orcadians who were the stronger team capitalising on two mistakes by Blairgowrie to score two tries but Blairgowrie quickly responded with another Stephen Souter penalty. After a good spell of play by Blairgowrie a back row move off the back of the scrum saw Ewan Morrison feed the ball to inside centre Duncan Campbell who took the ball at pace to score Blairgowrie’s only try of the day. With Blairgowrie looking once again as if they would at least secure a losing bonus point Orkney upped the pressure scoring two tries towards the end of the game to make the final score Blairgowrie 13 Orkney 26.

Once again this was a tale of what might have been with Blairgowrie having led at the interval for the second week in succession but failing to  prevent the visitors scoring during the closing stages of the game.

Following the match club captain Ewan Morrison thanked the Orkney players for making the long trip to Blairgowrie and also thanked Lisa for preparing the after match food. Man of the match points were awarded to Michael Black -1 point, John Jenkins - 2 points and Michael Grant - 3 points and Man of the Match.

This Saturday Blairgowrie make the long trip north to face top of the table Aberdeenshire RFC. Team selection and travel arrangements will be announced at training on Thursday evening with the team bus likely to be leaving the J J Coupar Park at 12 noon.

HEARTS & HERO’S CHALLENGE

Five Blairgowrie rugby club players, namely Kev Brown, Mickey Todd, Alan Webster, Fraser Bissett and Gavin Wynd will on the 16th of May be taking on the gruelling task of running 29 miles across the scenic Southern Upland Way to raise funds for the Hearts & Hero’s Challenge. The money raised will be used to support the work of the 3 charities involved, Poppy Scotland, The Sportsman’s Charity and Hearts & Balls. Anyone wishing to support the lads can do so by making a donation via the ‘JustGiving’ website which can be accessed www.justgiving.com/blairgowrie-rfc or at the clubhouse at the J J Coupar Park. Last Saturday a Race Night organised by Kev Brown was held at the clubhouse to raise funds towards the Hearts & Hero’s Challenge and sincere thanks were extended by Kev, Alan, Mickey, Fraser and Gavin to all those who attended and to those who gave donations for the raffle.