Arran up to second in the league after promising start to the season
Isle of Arran RFC 33 Birkmyre RFC 27
Arran Rugby Club maintained their unbeaten start to the season with an entertaining 33-27 victory over Birkmyre at Ormidale Park on Saturday.
Despite missing key fly half Frazer Barr through injury and experienced prop Donald Murchie, Arran started the match positively and opened the scoring as Fraser Gilbert knocked over a close range penalty.
Arran dominated the opening exchanges and scored the game’s first try after 15 minutes as Gregor Adamson, standing in for Barr at fly half, broke through the Birkmyre defensive line and offloaded to the supporting Gilbert who touched down near the posts. Gilbert converted his own score giving Arran an early 10-0 lead.
This try sparked bottom of the table Birkmyre into life and they responded with an unconverted try of their own as some poor Arran defending allowed their number eight to score in the corner.
Arran responded immediately as Gilbert crashed over for his second try, following sustained pressure on the Birkmyre line. Sam Tattersfield took over kicking responsibility and added the extra two points giving Arran a 17-5 lead. Tattersfield extended this to 20-5 as the visitors were penalised for being offside.
On the stroke of halftime, Arran were in for another try. Adamson made a crunching tackle on the halfway line and the ball broke to Gilbert who showed great pace and power to run the ball in from 50 metres, evading several would-be tacklers to complete his hat-trick. Tattersfield was off target with the conversion leaving the half-time score 25-5.
At the break Arran were forced into a change as a rather groggy looking
Adamson was replaced by Jack Barbour, causing a reshuffle of the backs with Tattersfield moving to stand-off.
Birkmyre came out all guns blazing in the second period, playing with much greater intensity and purpose scoring two quick-fire tries, cutting Arran’s lead to 25-15. As the half wore on unforced errors crept into the home side’s play with far too many players falling off tackles. This was not helped by the injury to Liam Boal, who was withdrawn following a nasty looking head knock.
The visitors took full advantage of this as they scored their fourth try soon after, bringing them within five points of the hosts.
Arran rallied and the introduction of experienced duo Neil McMaster and Iain ‘Ugg’ MacDonald helped stem the defensive errors.
The home side started to play in a more controlled fashion and were rewarded with their fourth try of the afternoon as quick hands between Tattersfield and Danny Head released young Reece Currie who finished brilliantly in the corner. Tattersfield was off target with the conversion, but he landed a tricky penalty soon after giving Arran a 13-point advantage with 10 minutes remaining.
The visitors threw everything at Arran in the closing stages and scored a late consolation try. However, the home side held out for a 31-27 victory.
Overall, it was a decent result for Arran leaving them second in the West Division 3 table. Nonetheless, their poor second-half defensive performance will be a cause for concern ahead of next week’s away fixture against table-topping Strathendrick.