Second half slump costly
AYRSHIRE BULLS ............................................................ 30 STIRLING COUNTY ........................................................... 8
A dominant second half display from the home side saw the Bulls race to victory over Stirling County on a day which turned wild in the west and also saw the lights go out at Millbrae.
Ross Thompson opened the scoring for the Bulls in the 18th minute with a straight-forward penalty before a shinned box kick by Stirling County scrum-half Caleb Korteweg was played from an offside position by County and Thompson sent a wonderful kick into the corner. From there, a 10-man maul with Sam Kitchen at the back of it was able to power over the line, making it 8-0 to the hosts.
Thompson was involved in the next scoring opportunity when he knocked on the restart, giving the scrum put-in to Stirling. Nicolas Griffiths was pinged for collapsing and, even though the wind had started picking up just before kick-off, Andrew Goudie judged it well to get County moving on the scoreboard.
The inclement conditions then brought a bit of drama as it knocked the power out throughout Ayr, and there was a touch of concern as to whether the floodlight failure and bleak overhead conditions could lead to a postponement. Indeed, Ayr’s National One match against Biggar had to be moved, but with this being 2pm kick-off it was reckoned it would be fine to continue before it became too dark.
Gordon Reid was yellow carded for Bulls leaving his team short-handed for the final 10 minutes of the first half and it proved costly. Ollie Smith did prevent Robbie Kent’s pass from finding Ewan MacGarvie for a simple run-in when Stirling had penalty advantage, and then Cameron Henderson was held up over the line, but from that scrum Goudie was fed by half-back partner
Korteweg and weaved over the try-line.
Although he missed the conversion, Goudie then had the opportunity to put County in the lead just before half-time, however a huge gust of wind sent his penalty effort on to the post. County did recover possession, but an excellent cover tackle by Smith prevented Logan Trotter from scoring in the left-hand corner.
Reid came back on to the pitch and quickly marched through his opposite number at the next scrum, allowing the home team to get into the County 22, where once again their maul work proved to be effective and Sam Kitchen added another try to his tally.
With the rain now also belting down and Bulls dominating the set-pieces, it became one-way traffic. Graham Geldenhuys ran on to a cheeky Kitchen lineout, but was held up, however captain Blair Macpherson was soon over after consistent pressure on the County line.
Thompson knocked over another penalty and they claimed the bonus-point score after the hooter had sounded.
Fancy feet and off-loading from replacement props Michael Scott and Ruairidh Sayce set them on their way, Macpherson found Matt Davidson, who looked left to see Ollie Smith, and the full-back breezed over the line, sparking a bit of a brouhaha between both sides.
“Feeling a little bit of déjà vu,” said disappointed Stirling County boss Ben Cairns afterwards. “Generally, we’re putting ourselves in good positions in matches, then we shoot ourselves in the foot in the second half. We need to figure out why that’s happening.
“I don’t feel like it’s a fatigue thing, certainly our execution goes down a bit second half. We just need to figure why that’s the case.”
Stirling County: MacGarvie; McLean, Kent, Hayes, Trotter; Goudie, Korteweg; Brown, R Kennedy, Walker, Davidson, Henderson, Arnott, Smith, Ashe. Subs: Robertson, Wood, Bradbury, Pow, Bartlett, S Kennedy, Gordon, Cunningham.