Saturday
23rd Feb, the Blairgowrie Rubgy Club Senior squad travelled to
Royal Deeside to take on Aboyne RFC in the second round of the
Scottish Hydro Electric Plate Competition following their successful
trip to Stornoway the previous weekend. Blairgowrie opted to play
with the wind in the first half and immediately put the home side
under pressure forcing them to concede a penalty on their one
22 meter line early on in the game. While everyone else was waiting
to see what was going to happen Peter Duncan took a quick tap
penalty and ran in to score to give Blairgowrie an early 5 point
lead.
From this
point on however both teams failed to exert themselves on the
game with both forwards and backs spilling ball at crucial times.
Midway through the first half Aboyne pounced on one of these mistakes
and levelled the score with a well taken try. With minutes of
the first half remaining Blairgowrie won themselves another penalty
inside the opposing 22 meter area and Alan Clarke took the quick
penalty and drove over to give Blairgowrie a narrow 10-5 lead
at the interval.
With Blairgowrie
looking to face the wind in the second half coach Peter Ireland
had a few words to say to the team at the interval and whatever
he said it seemed to work with Blairgowrie taking the game to
the opposition straight from the kick off. This early pressure
paid off with prop forward James Buchanan bursting through a number
of tackles then pirouetting before releasing the ball to Robert
Larsen who was driven over by the supporting Blairgowrie forwards.
At this point
Blairgowrie were playing much better rugby than they played in
the first half and with 10 minutes of the match remaining Euan
Ireland made a break through the Aboyne defence before passing
the ball to the supporting Peter Duncan who burst through two
tackles to score his second and Blairgowrie's fourth try which
was converted by full back Stephen Souter. Final score Aboyne
5 Blairgowrie 22.
Team : Alan Guild, Robert Larsen, Euan Constable, Alan Clarke,
Ewen Morrison, Duncan Campbell, Tim Watson, Kev Brown (capt),
Gavin Wynd, Euan Ireland, Alan Robertson, Peter Duncan, Fraser
Bissett, Michael Black, Andrew Cowan, Stepehen Souter, James Buchanan,
Jake Cockburn, Gordon Black, Ben Wilson, Dafydd Jones.
This was a tough encounter for Blairgowrie and credit must go
to the Aboyne team who made it extremely difficult for the visitors
particularly in the first half of the game. Much credit must go
the Blairgowrie forwards who really upped a gear in the second
half with some good rucking and driving by each and every forward
with vice captain Ewen Morrison leading by example after club
captain Kev Brown had to leave the field early in the game through
injury. Man of the Match points awarded as follows; Peter Duncan
- 1 point, Duncan Campbell - 2 points and Ewen Morrison - 3 points
and Man of the Match.
Blairgowrie now move into the third round with an away tie against
St. Andrews University this coming Saturday (1st March). While
Blairgowrie will be very much the underdogs for this match with
the St Andrews students flying high in the league above Blairgowrie
if Blairgowrie show the grit and determination that they have
shown throughout this season they have a realistic chance of causing
an upset. Team selection and travel arrangements will be announced
at training on Thursday. Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday
at 7.00 at the J J Coupar Park. Old and new players always welcome.
See pictures
here...
