Narrow Win at Crieff

Saturday 19 Feb 11, the Blairgowrie senior squad travelled west to Crieff for their rearranged league match against Crieff & Strathearn RFC.  Having had a comfortable win against Crieff at the J J Coupar Park a few weeks ago Blairgowrie knew that it would be a different proposition this time with Crieff fielding a much stronger team than had travelled to Blairgowrie earlier in the month. With both teams having agreed to an early kick off to allow everyone to watch the six nations matches later in the afternoon it was the visitors who started off the strongest with great breaks by captain Fraser Bissett and forwards Ewen Morrison and Mark Reddin but the home defence prevented a score. This early pressure finally paid off after No 8 Kev Brown picked up from the base of the scrum to quickly feed the ball out to Gavin Wynd who in turn passed the ball out to winger Stevie Stewart to score in the corner superbly converted by Stephen Souter from the touchline. The home side quickly responded after some woeful tackling by the Blairgowrie defence allowing the Crieff stand off to level the scoring. Blairgowrie went back into the lead with a Stephen Souter penalty after Crieff were penalised for persistently being offside. Minutes later Blairgowrie were reduced to 14 men when one of the Blairgowrie forwards was sin binned for 10 minutes having been deemed to have brought a player down when he was not in possession of the ball. At this point Crieff were coming more and more into the game and only a try saving tackle by Stevie Stewart prevented the home side from taking the lead. Minutes later Stephen Souter successfully converted a second penalty with Crieff quickly responding also with a penalty. With the first half drawing to a close Russell Edward stole the ball from the base of the Crieff scrum to release front row forward Rory Philip who sprinted up the touchline only to be bundled into touch before the referee blew the whistle with the half time score Crieff 10 Blairgowrie 13.

Team: Mike Lee, Rory Philip, James Buchanan, Mark Reddin, Ewen Morrison, Neil MacRae, Rusell Edward, Kev Brown, Gavin Wynd, Charlie Leadbetter, Fraser Bisett, Micahel Black, Michael Grant, Stevie Stewart, Stephen Souter, Al Guild, Liam McLaren, Alan Webster.

From the restart it was the home side who applied the early pressure and following a poor lineout ball by Blairgowrie the home side secured the ball to score a try in the corner to put them into a two point lead. With the game evenly balanced Blairgowrie coach and ex Crieff player Alan Webster introduced himself to fray and immediately made an impact driving the visitors forward at every opportunity. This finally paid off after some good rucking and mauling by the Blairgowrie forwards allowing the ball to be fed out to Michael Black who took the ball at pace to score Blairgowrie’s second try to put them back into the lead Try converted by Stephen Souter. With minutes of the game remaining Stephen Souter successfully kicked another penalty for Blairgowrie with the home side converting a penalty with the last kick of the match. Final score Crieff 18 Blairgowrie 23.

With a number of Blairgowrie players playing out of position it took them a while to settle against a much stronger Crieff side than they had faced earlier in the month but good work by the forwards in the final quarter of the match provided a platform for Blairgowrie to secure the 4 points. Following the match both teams and supporters adjourned to the clubhouse to watch Scotland win against Italy at Murrayfield. Blairgowrie captain Fraser Bissett thanked the Crieff team and the referee for a good match and the Crieff committee for their hospitality. Man of the match points were awarded to Stevie Stewart and Mike Lee - 1 point each, Michael Black - 2 points and Ewen Morrison - 3 points and the Man of the Match award.

This Saturday (26th) Blairgowrie host Arbroath RFC in the last home game of the season with a 3 o‘ clock kick off. Training continues at 7.00 at the J J Coupar Park on Tuesdays and Thursdays.