Blair Beat League Leaders

Saturday 14th Nov 09, Blairgowrie welcomed Carnoustie RFC the Scottish Hydro Electric Caledonian League Division II leaders to the J J Coupar Park for what turned out to be a bruising encounter in wet and windy conditions. With Carnoustie unbeaten in the league and looking like serious contenders for the league title this was always going to be a difficult game for the home side and so it turned out to be.

From the kick off it was Blairgowrie who went straight into attack with Michael Simpson converting a penalty to give Blairgowrie an early lead. From then on the game became a hard physical contest with Blairgowrie playing some of the best rugby seen at the JJ Coupar Park this season. Midway through the first half Ewan Morrison made a superb break and with the Blairgowrie forwards in support the ball was fed out wide to Michael Black who handed off the Carnoustie winger and outpaced the full back to score under the posts which was converted by Michael Simpson. Carnoustie quickly replied with a penalty but the Blairgowrie squad continued to attack with both forwards and backs playing some really good rugby and could have added further scores were it not for some errors largely due to the very wet conditions. Carnoustie added a second penalty just before the interval to make the half time score Blairgowrie 10 Carnoustie 6.

With the rain easing off the game continued at the same high tempo in the second half with some hard tackles being put in by both teams but it was Blairgworie who extended their lead shortly after the interval with another penalty from Michael Simpson. From this point of the match Carnoustie upped their game putting the home side under pressure for long periods but the home defence remained solid with every Blairgowrie player putting in the tackles but particularly by Peter Duncan. With both squads showing full commitment to the game both teams had a player sin binned for an off the ball incident and no sooner were the players back on the pitch when Blairgowrie had a second player sin binned for persistently going over the top. At this point of the match much of the play was in the Blairgowrie half of the field with Carnoustie eventually breaching the home defence to score in the corner to reduce Blairgowrie’ lead to two points. Blairgowrie had to dig deep at this stage and went back into attack resulting in Carnoustie conceding a penalty which Michael Simpson duly converted. With about ten minutes of the match remaining Blairgowrie were put under pressure once again with another player being sin binned for an alleged high tackle. With the last play of the game Carnoustie were awarded a lineout five metres from Blairgowrie’s try line but the ball was knocked on by the visitors allowing captain Gavin Wynd to dive on the ball for the referee to blow up for full time with the final score Blairgowrie 16 Carnoustie 11.

This was a keenly contested match with Blairgowrie playing some superb rugby in the first half but credit must also go to the visitors who were magnanimous in defeat. Following the match captain Gavin Wynd thanked Carnoustie and the match referee for a keenly contested match. Thanks were also relayed to match sponsors Graham’s Environmental Services and to Ralph Donaldson and Calum MacIntosh for preparing the food for the sponsors and to Fraser Bissett for preparing the food for the players. While practically every Blairgowrie player could be considered for man of the match the points were awarded to Ewan Morrison and Ryan Walker - 1 point each, Michael Simpson - 2 points and Peter Duncan - 3 points and the Man of the Match award.

Team: Ryan Walker, Robert Larsen, Euan Constable, Mark Reddin, Ewan Morrison, Neil MacRae, Rory Philip, Kev Brown, Gavin Wynd, Michael Simpson, Fraser Bissett, Peter Duncan, Michael Black, Ally Walker, Michael Grant, Al Guild, James Buchanan, Liam McLaren, Andy Barrett, Stephen Souter, Alan Webster.

With Scotland taking on Australia at Murrayfield this weekend Blairgowrie do not have a game with the next competitive match at the J J Coupar Park on Saturday 28th against near neighbours Crieff & Strathearn in the second round of the Scottish Hydro Electric Bowl.