Last Saturday
the Blairgowrie senior squad returned to league duty with a home
tie against Fife Southern RFC with team mascot for the day Oliver
Moore leading the Blairgowrie team onto the field.
From the kick
off Fife Southern looked to be the stronger team pinning the home
side back in their own half for long periods with a superb break
by Fraser Bissett the only high point of the first quarter. With
minutes of the first half remaining Blairgowrie broke the deadlock
after some good driving by the Blairgowrie pack allowing Ewan
Ireland to spin the ball wide to Stephen Souter to score in the
corner to make the half time score Blairgowrie 5 Fife Southern
0.
From the restart it was evident that coach Peter Ireland had a
few words to say to his players during the interval with the Blairgowrie
team looking as if they had moved up a couple of gears and taking
the game to the opposition with some excellent phases of good
attacking rugby. This attacking play soon paid off with Michael
Black scoring in the corner converted by Stephen Souter.
Within two
minutes Blairgowrie were to add a third try after the Blairgowrie
forwards had driven the Fife Southern pack at least 20 metres
to allow Cally Gordon to pick up the ball to score under the posts
converted by Stephen Souter. This was followed by a spate of tries
the first of these coming after Ewan Ireland and Gavin Wynd had
combined well to release Fraser Bissett who took the ball at pace
to score under the posts converted by Stephen Souter.
The fifth
try of the afternoon came after some good driving play by Duncan
Campbell and Ewen Morrison to release Cally Gordon to score his
second try of the day. At this point of the game Blairgowrie looked
as if they could score at will with a further four tries being
scored in the last 10 minutes of the match with Tim Watson being
unlucky not to add a further score after a driving run through
the Fife defence.
The first
of these tries came once again from great driving play by the
forwards with captain Kev Brown leading as usual by example to
score under the posts converted by Stephen Souter. This was quickly
followed by a further two tries the first coming from stand off
Ewan Ireland who scored in the corner and then a fine individual
effort by Stepehen Souter who then proceeded to convert from the
touchline. With minutes of the match remaining winger Andrew Cowan
added the ninth try of the match scoring in the corner converted
by Stephen Souter. Final score Blairgowrie 57 Fife Southern 0.
Team: James Buchanan, Al Guild, Ewan Constable, Jake Cockburn,
Gordon Black, Tim Watson, Ewen Morrison, Mikey Todd, Duncan Campbell,
Kev Brown (capt), Gavin Wynd, Ewan Ireland, Alan Robertson, Cally
Gordon, Fraser Bissett, Peter Duncan, Michael Black, Andrew Cowan,
Stephen Souter.
To use the old cliché, this was certainly a game of two
halves with Blairgowrie looking like a totally different team
in the second half of the match compared to their display in the
first half. Credit must go to all the players who contributed
to an excellent second half with the Man of the Match points being
awarded to Fraser Bissett - 3 points, Cally Gordon - 2 points,
and Kev Brown - 1 point.
With Blairgowrie
still unbeaten in the Caledonia League SRU representative Don
Burns presented the League trophy to captain Kev Brown much to
the delight of the players and on looking supporters.
With three
games remaining in the league the first of these will be away
from home against Panmure RFC this Saturday. Team selection and
travel arrangements to be announced at training which continues
at 7.00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the J J Coupar Park.
Congratulations
to Jake Cockburn's Primary 6/7 squad who won the trophy at Carnoustie
last weekend to add another bit of silverware to Blairgowrie's
trophy cabinet.
See pictures
here...
