County let half-time lead slip
Heriot’s come back to win
HERIOT’S ................................................... 29 STIRLING COUNTY .................................. 19
Heriot’s profited from Stirling County’s lack of composure at key moments to chalk up an impressive win that keeps them within striking distance of top spot in the FOSROC Super6 table.
For County, it was another frustrating afternoon when they led at half time then failed to use their superior forward power to secure what would have been only their second win in the competition.
The home side had the better start without coming close to unlocking a solid County defence and it was the visitors who eventually broke the deadlock in 25 minutes.
A penalty taken quickly by Sean Kennedy created the platform for a spell of sustained pressure within sight of the home line.
Three successive scrum penalties led the referee to issue a warning and when the hosts offended again at the next setpiece, he awarded a seven pointer. And maximising the pain for Heriot’s, Josh Scott was despatched for 10 minutes in the sin-bin.
The response was instant with Adam Sinclair racing into space and combining with Ronan Seydak to spark a slick handling move that ended with James Spencer going in at the corner. There was no conversion.
However, having established forward supremacy, County reverted to the pack to extend their lead. A penalty was booted into touch a couple metres shy of the home line and a powerful surge at the ensuing lineout ended with the Heriot’s defence being shunted backwards and skipper Reyner
Kennedy applied the final touch for his third try in Super6.
Again, the home side wasted no time in responding but a misfiring line-out again failed to function and County were able to restrict Heriot’s to only three more first half points with Ross Jones stroking over a close range penalty a minute before the break.
The game cranked up a gear in the second half and it was Heriot’s who were first to boost their points tally. With the referee playing advantage, Jones delivered a high kick that caused confusion in the County defence and allowed Spencer to pluck the ball out of the air and claim his second score, with Jones converting.
Andrew Goudie had a chance to square matters but his penalty effort drifted just wide of the target. And things got even better for the Edinburgh side when Chris Keen claimed try number three from a powerful surge after a close-range lineout. Jones was again on target with the kick, extending the gap to 10 points.
Back came County and Logan Trotter showed his pace to dart down the left flank then feed inside for Bruce Sorbie to score. Goudie hammered over the conversion to offer the visitors some hope.
But once again, they immediately surrendered the initiative when Jones passed to Jack Blain who sidestepped past one defender and powered through another tackle to touch down between the sticks, leaving Jones a simple conversion to complete the scoring and extend Heriot’s’ winning run to three matches.
Stirling County: Sorbie; MacGarvie (Bryce), Kent, Hayes, Trotter; Goudie, S Kennedy (Korteweg); Brown (Wood), R Kennedy (Stewart), Walker (Bradbury), Bartlett, C Henderson, Arnott (Pow), Gordon,Taylor-Menzies.