Russian Roulette in Hamilton
Clydebank 1st XV were off duty
this week when the notoriously poor Paisley pitches
succumbed to the rain during the week and the match was
cancelled.
The 2nd XV however travelled to
Hamilton to play a league match which at times turned into a
farce due to the inexperienced nature of the newly qualified
Russian referee.
The Clydebank 2nd XV have
started to work well as a team as they get more matches
together and this proved to be the difference between the
two squads and allowed Clydebank to run out winners by 5-12.
The match started well with
both sides evenly matched. However, it soon became
apparent that the match official was less than familiar with
the laws of the game and a number of infringements were
missed against both sides and the match lost some of its
structure.
Clydebank kept their composure
and tackled ferociously throughout. Hamilton soon
began to show signs of the pressure from Clydebank and
injuries started to occur on a regular basis.
Fortunately, for Hamilton they did have plenty of
replacements to keep their strength up on the park.
After ten minutes another big
tackle in the middle of the field saw Clydebank gain
possession from the Hamilton backs. The ball was fed
to the Clydebank backs and Stephen Barnett was off down the
park with Hamilton trying desperately to catch him. A try
was scored and converted and Clydebank had a 0-7 lead.
The match settled back into an
even affair until just on twenty five minutes when Barnett
saw another break and was off again. Side stepping the
defence he ran thirty yards to the Hamilton 22 metre line
where he was stopped. Alex Allan was in support and
took the ball on and was stopped by the full back but
managed to pass off to Connor Sloss who crossed the line for
what appeared to be a clear try. The referee however
felt differently and called the final pass forward, dashing
Connor’s celebrations.
The remainder of the half was
played out without incident.
The second half saw Clydebank
get off the starting blocks very quickly. Within a few
phases of play after the kickoff Alex Allan had made a break
to the Hamilton try line. The ruck saw Clydebank
recycle the ball quickly and Alistair Smart ran over for an
easy try. The missed conversion left the score at
0-12.
Ten minutes later a scrum was
awarded to Hamilton on the Clydebank line and put Hamilton
into a good attacking position. A break from the scrum left
the Clydebank back row flat footed and allowed Hamilton to
narrow the gap with an unconverted try to bring the score
back to 5-12.
Clydebank played well for the
remainder of the second half with several excellent breaks
through the Hamilton defence but could not make the extra
yards to get the scores.
The second half was
entertaining for the spectators and the match eventually
ended with Clydebank the victors.
Team Photo
Sunday had both the U15 and U17
teams playing at home against Loch Lomond and Cartha Queens
Park respectively.
The U15 match was lost 31-5 as
the stronger Lomond team controlled the match throughout.
The single try came from Mark Woodcock.
The U17 match was also lost by
38-3 with the larger Cartha team proving to be too strong
for a Clydebank team who lacked imagination and
determination in too many key areas. The only
Clydebank score came from a penalty kicked by Jack McCombe.