Shire too strong for Grangemouth

PERTHSHIRE 2XV ............................... 35 GRANGEMOUTH 2XV ........................ 5

Coach Dave Lewis highlighted to his men the importance of a win in this Caledonia League 3 fixture.

Those thoughts were echoed by captain Chris Wallace and Perthshire players duly delivered by scoring six tries in a convincing victory.

The game started with the Perth side taking kick off and, for the first 10 minutes, it was quite even with both teams seeing plenty ball.

However, Grangemouth’s discipline broke first and Jonny Armitt slotted the penalty to get his team on the board.

Simon McGarry picked up where he left off last week with another great running try down the wing. This was followed by a try from Jay Pettie, then another from in-form McGarry.

Grangemouth were unable to cope with Shire’s dominance and much improved defensive line speed.

This showed when the visitors’ tempers flared and the game had to be stopped, their number eight driving his knees into Armitt’s stomach.

The infringement occurred during a ruck and led to the influential home star needing several minutes to recover.

Wallace also received a stinger when a Grangemouth player booted his hand while scrambling for a loose ball. The players were duly warned.

Half-time soon arrived and the North Inch scoreboard read 20-0 in Shire’s favour, with Grangemouth limited to only a few visits into the 22.

The Eagles were instructed not to get involved in any‘afters’following the interval, but were told to keep the intensity at a high level.

When the second half started, Grangemouth threw the kitchen sink at Perth, but they still couldn’t score.

Ross Goodison disrupted play several times with well-timed turnovers and some great mazy runs through midfield.

The work rate and tackling from Paul McLean, meanwhile, put the visitors completely on the back foot at times.

Ryan Moon and Pettie ran in two further tries as Shire kept the pressure on during a match where Armitt pretty much ran the show.

He dotted down with a solo try effort before Pettie finished the scoring with a long-range penalty.

Grangemouth’s frustrations grew throughout the half and in the last 10 minutes the game became scrappy, with scuffles breaking out off the ball.

Armitt was replaced by veteran Alec Watson with a few minutes to go and he was soon joined by brother Campbell.

It only took minutes for both to be caught up in the scuffles causing the game to be stopped again. Naturally both denied any wrongdoing.

The visitors camped themselves on Perth’s try line and the referee’s patience finally wilted when Ewen MacDonald was yellow carded.

Grangemouth finally broke through the defence when their 12 went on a run, beating Wallace and two more defenders en route to the try zone.

At full-time, Shire claim the referee calculated the scores incorrectly, as Perth scored 40 points but the official scorecard went down as 35.

Next week the team travel to league leaders Dunfermline 2XV and are aiming to cause an upset.