Slow start sealed our fate says coach

Alan Clark reckons Perthshire let four points slip against Orkney - and highlighted the poor start.

The Eagles’ head coach watched his side stumble out of the blocks to concede 16 early points.

While Shire did collect a losing bonus point in the end, Clark thought his men should have retuned home with more.

“The first 15 minutes of the game was really poor from our point of view,” Clark explained to the PA.

“It was like we were sleeping and Orkney took full advantage of that fact.

“Before we knew it we were 16 points down and we hadn’t really made the opposition work very hard to get there.

“In seasons past we’d have given up at that point but the guys are not often like that any more.

“When we did come to life the game was a cracker and we were unlucky to only come away with one point.

“The point we got may well end up being very important to us and it’s always good to take something from away games.

“But if we are honest with ourselves it was four that got away rather than one gained.

“Our job is now to go strong into the next couple of games and finish the year on a high.”

Murrayfield Wanderers make the trip to the North Inch on Saturday.

Clark said: “Our new saying in the squad is: ‘It doesn’t matter who you are playing against, only who you are playing with.’

“With that in mind we approach every game looking at what we can do now, not what’s gone before and we never dwell on past results.

“Saturday will be tough but they are all tough at the moment.

“We came through the Orkney game with the usual bumps and bruises but nothing too serious.

“As usual there are some unable to play this weekend for a number of reasons but we’ll welcome other guys in.

“A few guys have also made their first XV debuts in the past month or so and we’ve picked up a couple of guys who’ve had a couple of years out.

“As a result we have a much wider pool of guys we can call upon to do a job.”