Clydebank Avoid Long Arm of the Law
Clydebank made it four from four with yet
another win away from home against a team who have so often been
a problem in the past.
The Police team did struggle to field a team but
still put in a hard shift of tackling and disruption to contain the
Clydebank team who looked in control throughout the match, even though
they had their poorest performance of the season so far.
With last week’s league leaders losing Clydebank go
top after their 3-16 win although a bonus point is still elusive.
Clydebank were sporting their new strips sponsored by
the Six Bells pub in Bearsden. The new look gave the team a lift
but failed to spur them onto any great scoring feats. Within a
minute the Police had the advantage with a penalty which they chose to
kick. Luckily the kick went wide and the score stayed level.
Clydebank were settling into a new configuration with
the loss of the normally influential David Bell at centre but the new
partnership of Michael Starkey at standoff and Ross McCombe at inside
centre settled down quickly into a strong combination.
Unfortunately, although Clydebank had a lot of the
possession for much of the half they could not maintain enough
continuity to trouble to bullish defence of the Police.
David Millar and David Smart combined early allowing
Smart to penetrate the Police defensive line but the support was
lacking. Robert Parr at outside centre also looked threatening on
a number of occasions but the final pass was often astray or the ball
was knocked on losing possession once more.
Ross Moffatt came to the rescue with two penalties on
twenty and thirty minutes to put Clydebank in the lead although this was
a tenuous lead going into the second half against a Police team who
would have the advantage of a slight tail wind.
The second half was much the same as the first with
the Police getting the first chance at a score after seven minutes when
Clydebank were penalised. The successful kick narrowed the gap and
put the pressure on Clydebank.
Several times Smart and Parr would rampage through
the Police defence but the lack of Clydebank support would see little
come of these efforts. Once again it would be Moffatt who would
step up to convert a penalty after twenty-five minutes to stretch the
lead but not enough to settle the nerves of the Clydebank support.
The Police continued to stifle the Clydebank attacks
but at the death Michael Starkey took his chance at a break to settle
the match. Starkey broke up the narrow side with a ball fed out
from a ruck in the middle of the park. Michael had the full back
to beat but this man epitomised the Police spirit as he launched himself
at Michael and brought him down.
However, this time support was on
hand in the form of Scott McIntosh who took the offload from Starkey and
crossed the line for a try under the posts. Moffatt added the two
points and completed the scoring for the day and stretched the Clydebank
run to four wins from four.
Team Photo
The Clydebank 2nd XV are still looking for their
first win, which was not helped by a frantic search for players hours
before the match. However, sufficient players did take to the
field against a Dalziel 3rd XV who had much the better team and
proceeded to run in a host of tries without reply.
The mini section joined with Lomond to play Paisley
away and fielded three teams at P1/P3, P4/P5 and P6/P7. The
matches were very competitive with the Clydebank and Lomond players
combining for their first matches. The results were secondary to
the participation of so many young players, although the Lomond and
Clyde Minis did win several matches.
Next week the 1st XV have a
break from league duty while the 2nd XV play Waysiders away.