Worst of times
County blasted for their poorest show of the season
Hawick ............... 35 Stirling County .. 15
Alan Lorimer Stirling County suffered a disappointing defeat on Saturday in what coach Eddie Pollock said was “their worse performance” of the season.
They were in control against a Hawick side sruggling in the scrum until Edinburgh prop Pietro Ceccarelli came on to shore up a creaking eight - and for the next 15 minutes County shipped three converted tries.
It meant a fourth consecutive Tennent’s Premiership defeat on the road - one which they might well have expected to win.
“We just made it difficult for ourselves today,” said coach Pollock. “At 30 minutes we were in control and then in a 15 minute period we just didn’t defend.
“We just downed tools and let in 21 points. It’s just not acceptable for a Stirling County side to play like that.
“Hawick worked hard and deserved to get their win.
“They played some good rugby – but that was our worst performance by far this season.
“It was really disappointing because we’ve actually been in every game this year.
“We were dominant in the scrum and in the line-out for the first half hour. We got real go-forward in the middle of the field during that period.
“But then we just started to offload inaccurately. We turned ball over countless times and made it really easy for them.”
In the early minutes, Hawick veteran Lee Armstrong took advantage of a rebound off a defender of his own chip ahead to collec the ball to touch down for the opening try which he converted.
Stirling quickly asserted themselves, however, bossing the scrums and winning the touchline battle.
Their initial reward was a penalty goal by stand-off Andrew Goudie, who then added to his points tally with the conversion of his own try following a driving maul.
County almost added a second try when second-row Cameron Henderson broke clear before chipping the defence only to be beaten to the ball by Hawick winger Keith Young.
With Ceccarelli on the field, Hawick stopped the rot in the scrums and returned to attack with Armstrong throwing out a long pass to Young for the wing to score in the corner. Armstrong succeeded with the difficult conversion kick.
There was still time for a further Hawick try in the first half and again it was Armstrong who touched down, following it up with the extras for a 21-10 interval lead.
If that had not been bad enough for Stirling, Hawick scored again just three minutes into the second half as Armstrong broke through the defence before sending scrum-half Deaglan Lightfoot in under the posts, leaving the Greens’ stand-off with an easy conversion kick.
Stirling tried desperately to get back into the game and almost succeeded after forcing three five-metre scrums, only for Hawick to survive and come away with the ball.
Alasdair Mackie, however, finally scored the try County had sought, finishing good mauling work and then sensing a gap in the overstretched Hawick defence.
But four minutes from full-time, Hawick were able to celebrate again, the Greens inter-passing cleverly before full-back Kirk Ford put Young in for his second try of the game to seal an important win.
Stirling County: Robertson; McLean, Tagive, Hughes, Dineen; Goudie, Swan; Chies, Bryce, Holborn, Pow, C Henderson, Burr, MacDonald, Mackie. Subs: Kennedy, Wood, Arnott, H Henderson, Hope.
County finish the first half of the league season on Saturday Glasgow Hawks are the visitors to Bridgehaugh, kick-off 3om.
www.theoffsideline.com