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Watsonians 2nd XV v's Stirling County 2nd XV
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Venue: Myreside
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Date: Saturday 19th January 2008.
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The 2nd XV played their second game of 2008 after the previous week's fixture was a victim of the horrible January weather. So it was a relief to get a game. Unfortunately we could not respond and a lacklustre performance saw us go down to league leaders Stirling County by 27 points to 7.
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The warm up saw Josh back doing what he enjoys best and that is taking the fellas through their paces. A plethora of cones and ladders strategically spread the width of the field was met by a degree of cynicism by some.
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Stirling piped us in the corresponding fixture back in October by an injury time try, so we had plenty of reason to be motivated on our home patch.
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The team on paper was a strong one. 1st XV flanker Jonny Pelter was returning to rugby after a month or so on the sidelines with a torn ham string. Mike Kerr was at fly half and Johan occupied the left wing.
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Receiving the kick off Lock James Fulforth secured possession and proceedings were under way. The pace and intensity was high from both teams, with Stirling playing hard and showing a real hunger and intent to play rugby.
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We were mostly on the back foot from the off. Seemly barely out of our own 22 for the first 10 to 15 minutes. Continually defending, which is so sapping, it wasn't long before the boys were blowing hard and the dead lock was broken. Stirling crossed for the first try. There wasn't a great deal said under the posts.
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The following kick off was a good one, Mike Kerr put plenty of air on the ball. Richard Latimer gave chase and competed for the arial ball, tapped it back but a bang to his thigh brought a premature end to his afternoon.
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Stirling continued to mount on the pressure. They executed the basics well. In particular their line out and with ease were able to maul us up the park. With their tall second row dominating proceedings. It wasn't long before their second try came in the right hand corner. With ever increasing pressure on our own try line the Stirling pack were content to pick and drive close to the break down. They passed it out wide and their inside centre came back in on a hard angle and was hauled down in a despairing tackle however neatly managed the off load to the unmarked player who cantered in from short range. The conversion was missed and it was 10 nil to the visitors.
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On this occasion stern words were dished out by Captain Scott, who was pleading for more effort and zest.
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However it wasn't to be. The set piece line outs continued to misfire under the pressure and we creaked in the scrum all afternoon. This in turn put everything under great pressure. Luke Di Rollo at No 8 tried in vain to steady the ship with some good pick ups, but life was hard on the back foot.
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Before we knew it the Ref blew for half time. As you can well imagine the half time chat was about getting the finger out, showing some pride and trying to close the ten nil deficit.
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It worked for a time anyway. We definitely started the second half the brighter. Inside centre Stuart Mac cut a lovely out to in angle off Kerr and found considerable space in behind their defence. It was too good as there was no support to finish it off. But the break sparked some life into us. It was a turning point of sorts as we then started to play some rugby of our own.
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Stirling who are an impressive 2nd XV outfit scored two further tries and a penalty to take their tally to 27, and we hadn't even got a single point! It was one of those days!
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About mid way through the half winger Dempsey found himself in a bit of space and was able to show his pace. Beating his opposite man, continuing his run he executed a fairly neat little grubber like chip but didn't get the rub of the green and the move fizzed out. It was an encouraging piece of play in a pretty barren desert.
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Eventually we did get the consolation (in the truest sense of the word) score. Through hooker Daniel Moussa who showed good hands and a burst of pace to break through the midfield and touch down to the left of the posts. It seemed so simple and made us think why we didn't do it sooner. Whatever the reason it was nicely constructed as a team and well taken by the big fella. Kerr was good with the conversion and we were off the mark.
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It was a case too little too late for Watsonians. The full time whistle blew and concluded a game that held precious little in the way of high lights for the home side. It was a humiliating defeat and it really did hurt.
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Hushed words of disappointment were uttered at full time by Coach Leslie and we trudged off. Back to the drawing board.
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Full time: Watsonians 7, Stirling County 27.
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RL
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watsoniansrugby.com
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Published: 22/1/08
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